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HE  JEWISH  SABBATH 


by 


SAMSON 


California 


Translated  by 


BEN    JOSEPHUSSORO. 


THE  JEWISH  SABBATH 

by 

SAMSON    RAPHAEL    H1RSCH. 


Translated  by 
BEN     JOSEPHUSSORO. 


NEWPORT  : 
MULLOCK    AND    SONS,     LIMITKD,     PRINTERS. 


ign 


NOTICE. 

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PREFACE. 


One  of  the  most  ancient  religious  institutions,  one  which  is 
honoured  in  all  civilised  countries,  and  is  perhaps  most  widely 
observed  by  all  classes  of  society,  is  that  of  the  weekly  holiday  or 
day  of  rest.  It  is  a  generally  accepted  fact  that  the  origin  of  this 
institution  is  to  be  traced  back  to  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  The  early 
Christians  originally  observed  Sunday  as  a  day  of  sanctincation 
side  by  side  with  the  Sabbath,  but  when  later  on,  the  observance 
of  the  Sabbath  was  abandoned  by  them,  many  of  the  notions  and 
principles  connected  therewith,  were  transferred  to  the  Sunday 
observance.  It  was  not  until  the  8th  century  that  formal  prohibi- 
tion of  all  worldly  occupation  not  of  immediate  urgency,  was  deter- 
mined upon.  Although  the  designation  of  "Sunday,"  ("Dies 
sous")  cannot  properly  be  accepted  as -a  synonym  of  the  original 
"  Sabbath,"  its  real  significance  as  a  day  of  rest  from  worldly  toil 
and  labour,  and  a  day  of  subordination  to  the  Divine  will,  is  ra- 
dicated by  other  designations,  such  as  "  Lord's  Day,"  "  Dies 
Dominicus,"  "  Dimanche,"  "  Domenica,"  "  Domingo,"  etc.  The 
reformers  at  first  advocated  the  observance  of  Sunday  solely  on  the 
ground  of  practical  expediency,  but,  even  in  those  days,  Beza 
insisted,  that  Sunday  was  a  divine  ordinance  having  taken  the  place 
of  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  It  is  therefore  remarkable,  although  at 
the  same  time  explicable  on  psychological  grounds,  that  just  that 
very  section  of  the  church,  which  on  the  ground  of  one  of  its  funda- 
mental principles,  rejects  all  human  or  sacerdotal  intervention 
between  God  and  man,  and  which,  in  this  as  in  several  other 
respects,  approaches  Judaism  very  closely,  should  take  a  far  more 
serious  view  of  the  observance  of  Sunday  as  a  holy  day.  than  the 
other  branches  of  that  communion.  Thus  among  Protestants  more 
especially  hi  England,  Scotland  and  North  America,  the  strictest 
form  of  Sunday  observance  has  been  preserved  to  this  day  .Although 
certain  antiquated  laws  have  had  to  be  abandoned  owing  to  their 
interference  with  the  individual  liberty  of  conscience,  it  is 


nevertheless  a  well-known  fact  that  our  most  modern  and 
progressive  legislators  have  been  actively  engaged  in  devising 
the  best  means  for  regulating  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  the 
principles  of  which  were  laid  down  more  than  thirty-four  centuries 
ago  in  Exodus  xx.,  8-11  and  Deuteronomy  v.,  12-15  (especially 
the  latter  portion  of  verse  14  and  v.,  16).  For  many  decades 
already  the  most  civilized  states  have  set  the  example,  not 
only  by  prohibiting  all  official  transactions  and  other  work  on 
Sunday  in  their  governmental  departments,  but  also  by 
endeavouring  to  protect  labourers,  servants  and  factory  workmen 
from  the  more  or  less  justified  demands  of  their  employers. 

It  cannot  be  denied,  that  in  other  civilised  countries  as  well, 
a  more  rigorous  observance  of  the  weekly  day  of  rest  has  been 
spreading  during  the  last  few  decades. 

In  spite  of  the  great  revolutions  which  occurred  in  the  sphere 
of  religious  thought,  towards  the  end  of  the  18th  and  during  the 
first  half  of  the  19th  century,  in  spite  of  the  Atheism  which  then 
became  fashionable,  in  spite  of  Positivism,  Materialism,  and 
Darwinism,  and  notwithstanding  the  enormous  advances  made  in 
science,  industry  and  commerce  in  recent  times,  Sunday  observance 
is  becoming  more  general  from  year  to  year,  even  among  the 
Catholic  populations  of  Continental  Europe^1)  And  though  the 
external  forms  of  such  observance  vary  as  widely  as  the 
spiritual  interpretations  and  the  ethical  conceptions  which  are 
bound  up  with  them,  this  does  not  by  any  means  do  away  with 
the  undeniable  fact,  that  the  fundamental  idea  underlying  these 
institutions  is  steadily  gaining  ground. 

If  only  for  this  reason,  some  analysis  of  the  historical  and 
symbolical  significance  of  the  weekly  day  of  rest  which  has  been 
received  by  the  world  at  large  as  a  gift  from  Judaism  mi^ht 
be  of  interest — an  analysis  that  shall  discuss  the  "  Sabbath  "  in 


(l)It  is  noteworthy  that  even  France  quite  recently,  by  the  law  of  1906, 
established  a  weekly  day  of  rest  for  every  workman  or  employee,  of  24  con- 
secutive hours.  In  Belgium  the  laws  regulating  the  Sunday  rest  were  es- 
tablished in  1905  and  1907,  in  Spain  in  1904  and  1905,  in  Italy  in  1907  and  in 
Switzerland  in  1906.  In  Germany  the  present  regulations  have  been  in  force 
since  1900,  in  Denmark  since  1904.  In  Austria  the  law  of  1895  was  amended 
in  1905  and  in  Hungary  that  of  1891  was  amended  in  1903  and  1908. 


relation  to  the  creation  of  the  world, — to  the  period  of  legal 
$$%&$&.  the  Jewish  nation, — to  the  building  of  the  Temple, — also 
to  its  educational  influence  and  its  social  and  political  aspects. 

Among  modern  contributions  to  this  class  of  religious  literature 
we  might  search  in  vain  for  a  more  thorough  and  valuable  work 
than  a  treatise  entitled  "  The  Jewish  Sabbath  "  by  Samson  Raphael 
Hirsch,  republished  two  or  three  years  ago,  in  commemoration 
of  the  Centenary  of  the  Author's  birth,  by  the  "  Verein  der  Sabbath- 
freunde  "  in  Frankfort-on-Main. 

Every  Jew  in  German  speaking  countries,  knows  how  much 
the  writings  of  this  man,  with  their  vivid  freshness  of  colour,  their 
modernness,  their  almost  unrivalled  thoroughness,  relieved  by 
flashes  of  bright  humour,  have  contributed  towards  a  clearer 
conception  of  the  mission  of  Judaism,  and  hence,  also  towards 
stimulating  and  elevating  Jewish  effort  for  its  realisation.  These 
writings,  in  spite  of  their  sometimes  decried  "  fanciful  exegesis  " 
have  become  to  hundreds  and  thousands  of  his  disciples  and  fol- 
lowers a  "  viaticum  "  on  their  path  of  life,  and  they  have  enabled 
them  to  demonstrate  to  the  world  that  it  is  possible  to  accomplish 
eminent  achievements,  in  art  and  science,  commerce  and  industry, 
nay,  that  it  is  possible  even  to  be  hard-working,  poor  and  much 
harassed,  and  yet  to  remain  a  Jew  faithful  to  the  old  Law,  and 
devoted  to  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath.  They  have  created 
ideals  which  have  been  instrumental  in  training  the  wealthy  to 
charity  and  humility,  and  the  poor  to  that  unwavering  trust  in 
God  and  that  cheerful  spirit  which  is  so  often  admired. 

Unfortunately,  translation  into  a  foreign  tongue,  more  es- 
pecially in  the  case  of  an  author  whose  train  of  thought  was  not 
of  the  commonplace  order,  presents  no  mean  difficulties.  But  for 
the  fact  that  certain  friends,  more  particularly  Rev.  D.  Wasserzug 
of  the  Dalston  Synagogue  (to  whom  we  gladly  take  this  opportunity 
of  expressing  our  sincere  thanks)  afforded  us  the  invaluable  advan- 
tage of  their  most  generous  assistance,  these  pages  would  never 
have  seen  the  light  of  publicity. 

Nevertheless  we  cannot  refrain  from  soliciting  the  kind  in- 
dulgence of  our  esteemed  readers  as  regards  any  imperfections  that 


may  have  escaped  attention.  Any  suggestion  with  regard  to 
'correction  will  be  most  gratefully  accepted,  and  noted  with  a  view 
to  its  being  considered  in  any  future  revised  edition  that  may  be 
published. 


Since  the  publication  of  the  first  issue  of  this  booklet  we 
have  found  the  following  notice  in  a  recent  number  of  the 
"  Israelit  "  (Frankfort  »/».  )  which,  we  think,  will  interest  some 
of  our  readers  : 

t 
THE  SABBATH  and  HYGINE.     In  an  article  on  '(  Hygienic  thoughts 

and  their  manifestations  in  History  "  (Deutsche  Revue,  Oct. 
1911)  quoting  from  the  last  number  of  "  Sabbath  "  the  writer 
makes  the  following  observations  : 

"  What  a  fulness  of  blessing,  both  spiritual  and  physical, 
has  been  conferred  on  the  Jewish  people  by  this  their  holy  day, 
their  day  of  rest  !  More  than  any  other  institution  the  Sabbath 
has  given  them  the  power  to  hold  their  own  among  other  people, 
and  the  benefits  of  this  day  of  rest  they  have  transmitted  to 
the  Christian  and  Islamitic  faiths.  Thus  they  have  given  its 
immeasurable  hygienic  blessings  to  the  greater  part  of  the  iworld. 
Had  the  Jewish  race  given  to  mankind  nothing  beyond  this 
registration  of  every  seventh  day  as  a  day  of  rest,  we  should  be 
bound,  already  on  this  score  alone,  to  regard  them  as  one  among 
the  greatest  hygienic  benefactors  of  mankind."  — 


The  writer  of  this  paragraph^  is  Geheimer  Medizinalrat 
Carl   Sudhoff,    Professor   of    History   and   Medicine    at    Leipzig 
University  and  —  1   /   a  Christian. 


THE  JEWISH    SABBATH. 


THE  LOVELY  PEARL. 


"  See  that  God  has  given  you  the  Sabbath." — Ex.  16,  29. 
"  Behold  the  lovely  pearl 
"  which  I  have  given  you  !" — Yalkut,  ibid. 


Among  all  the  heavenly  gifts  which  Judaism  has  bestowed  upon 
its  followers,  none  surely  is  so  holy,  so  full  of  blessing,  as  the  gift 
of  the  oldest  earthly  institution,  the  gift  of  the  Sabbath,  the  Jewish 
Sabbath.  Take  from  the  Jew  his  Sabbath,  and  you  rob  him  of 
his  richest  jewel,  and  nothing  that  you  may  offer  him  in  exchange 
can  replace  it.  Take  from  the  Jew  his  Sabbath,  and  you  empty 
his  life  of  friendship  and  happiness,  and  however  much  his  friends 
may  throng  round  him  and  crown  him  with  ever  so  many  wreaths 
of  joy,  he  will  never  again  find  such  a  friend  as  the  Sabbath.  The 
delight  of  other  enjoyments  fades  away  before  the  sweet,  quiet 
bliss  of  the  Sabbath  joy. 

For  the  Sabbath  is  the  pearl  and  friend  of  the  Jew. 

God  has  bound  the  Jew  to  the  Sabbath  in  holy  wedlock.  He 
has  introduced  to  him  this  most  excellent  of  all  His  institutions 
as  a  loving  bride.  If  he  remains  true  to  her,  with  all  his  heart,  in 
devotion  and  self-sacrifice,  she  will  prove  his  most  loyal  com- 
panion. She  knows  how  to  transform  the  poorest  cottage  into 
a  paradise  for  him,  and  to  turn  his  darkest  night  into  fairest  day. 
With  her  hand  strong  in  love,  she  knows  how  to  guide  him 
safely  along  the  most  slippery  paths,  to  level  all  mountains,  to 
dry  all  tears,  to  heal  all  wounds,  to  sooth  all  pains,  and  to  extinguish 
all  cares.  She  makes  the  poorest  rich,  and  the  rich  she  teaches  to 
become  the  true  masters  of  their  wealth  and  their  pleasures.  The 
simple  she  makes  wise,  and  to  the  wise  she  points  out  the  true 
foundation  of  their  wisdom.  She  raises  up  the  fallen  and  to  the 


pure  and  strong  she  gives  the  very  soul  of   their  purity,    the  very 
essence  of  their  strength. 

Little  do  they  know  what  a  treasure  they  are  casting  away, 
who  turn  their  back  upon  this  friend  of  their  soul.  Little 
do  those  know  how  poor  they  leave  their  children,  who  fail  to  leave 
them  this  pearl.  Make  your  children  rich,  make  them  good, 
intelligent,  strong,  make  them  clever,  educated,  learned,  honoured, 
and  in  addition  give  them  the  Sabbath,  the  old  Jewish  Sabbath — 
•  give  it  to  them  by  your  teaching,  nay,  more,  give  it  to  them  by  your 
joyous,  your  earnest,  your  self-sacrificing  example,  and  you 
will  have  secured  permanence  for  their  riches,  a  support  for  their 
virtues,  a  shining  light  for  their  cleverness,  vigour  for  their  strength  ; 
and  for  their  knowledge,  their  science,  their  education  and  their 
honour,  you  will  have  secured  their  very  pith  and  essence,  their 
true  value  and  significance. 

You  may  enjoy  your  rest  in  peace,  for  even  though  your 
children's  wealth  should  disappear,  their  virtue  falter,  their  clever- 
ness fade  away,  their  health  fail,  their  intelligence  prove  inadequate, 
their  friends  untrue,  even  though  you  will  have  to  leave  them— and 
you  cannot  remain  with  them  for  ever — even  though  they  are  far 
away  and  deserted  and  poor  and  degraded,  yet  the  Sabbath  will  not 
forsake  them,  the  Sabbath  will  remain  with  them  and  will  at  all 
times  provide  them  with  an  inexhaustible  store  of  comfort  and 
strength,  of  light  and  balm,  of  sublime  and  exalted  feeling,  of  peace 
and  joy. 

Give  them  EVERYTHING,  however,  but  if  you  neglect  to 
wed  their  souls  to  the  Sabbath,  you  give  over  their  happiness  and 
peace,  their  bliss  and  joy,  their  wisdom,  their  Judaism  to  the 
incalculable  vicissitudes  of  fortune  ! 

For  this  reason  we  venture  to  set  down  in  these  pages  a  few 
reflections  on  this  pearl  of  Judaism,  the  Jewish  Sabbath.  Happy 
indeed  shall  we  be,  if  our  feeble  pen  succeeds  in  drawing,  impres- 
sively and  truthfully,  but  a  few  features  of  its  rich  store  of  precious 
teaching,  if  only  one  family,  one  cottage,  one  Jewish  soul  shall 
be  induced  to  save  uninjured  and  unimpaired,  this  eternal 
treasure  of  life  from  the  influence  of  the  time. 


1  — THE    SABBATH,    A    DAY    OF    REST    ORDAINFD 

BY  GOD. 

"  When  the  Sabbath  comes,  comes  rent." 

And  were  it  nothing  more  than  this,  nothing  more  than  a  day  of 
rest  ordained  by  God,  recurring  every  seventh  day,  as  it  presents 
itself  in  its  outward  appearance  ti  the  most  superficial  observer, 
what  a  blessing  it  would  even  then  bring  in  its  train  ! 

If  you  had  not  this  Sabbath,  this  day  of  rest,  ordained  by  God, 
when  would  you  rest,  when  would  you  come  to  your  self,  come  to 
your  wife  and  child,  when  would  you  attend  to  your  mind  and  spirit, 
to  your  heaven  upon  earth  ?  "  When  you  had  the  time  to  spare  ?  " 
— but  WHEN  would  you  have  time,  when  would  you  DARE 
to  have  time  to  spare  ? 

Incessantly  is  the  material  world  around  you  at  work,  it  never 
rests,  unceasingly  it  struggles  for  its  material  existence,  irresistibly 
it  marches  on.  He  who  does  not  go  forward,  goes  backwards,  he 
who  stands  still  is  trodden  down  :  "  by  day  and  by  night  they  never 
stand  still  " — and  could  you,  would  you  dare  to  cry  "  halt  "  to  your 
labour  ;  "  halt  "  to  your  cares  for  your  daily  existence  ?  You 
could,  you  might  dare  once  in  the  way  to  proclaim  a  rest  for  your 
hand,  your  head,  your  mind  ;  once  in  the  way  wipe  away  the  pers- 
piration, smooth  your  forehead,  shakt  from  you  the  dust  of  the 
arena  of  life  ?  But  dare  you  once  stop  even  to  look  forward  with 
earnest  intent  to  the  goal  which  you  have  to  gain  ;  to  gaze  back  for 
once,  look  around  you  and  down  into  your  inner  self,  look  joyously 
and  caln.ly  at  the  hope  which  you  cherished,  the  ideals  which  you 
strove  after  and  partly  realised,  and  for  once  in  the  way  step  out 
from  the  restless  and  afflicted  world  of,  "  THAT  is  TO  BE  "  into  the 
blissful  world  of  "  BEING,"  into  the  enjoyment  of  a  paradise  on 
earth  ? 

•'  Paradise  "  ?  Who  dares  still  to  speak  of  a  paradise  on 
earth  °  The  gates  of  paradise  were  closed  behind  us  long  ago. 
The  tree  of  life  blossoms  of  itself  now  for  no  one.  Thorns  and 
thistles  cumber  the  way  ;  our  bread  is  gained  in  the  sweat  of  the 
brow,  and  is  eaten  with  sorrow  and  sighing.  Without  the  Sabbath, 
without  rest,  man  is  fated  but  to  toil;  without  the  Sabbath,  without 


10 

rest,  he  is  tormented  by  worry.  And  though  a  thousand  minds 
were  thinking  day  by  day  how  to  increase  knowledge  :  though  a 
man's  thousand  inventions  were  day  by  day  adding  to  power,  this 
knowledge  would  make  him  no  richer  or  happier,  this  power  would 
bring  him  no  greater  freedom  or  ease.  "  The  more  knowledge, 
the  more  care  "  ;  the  more  inventions,  the  more  wants,  the  more 
strength,  the  more  action.  The  father  had  to  contend  only  with  his 
neighbour  ;  but  on  the  wings  of  the  clouds  the  son  has  to  battle 
with  the  whole  world.  The  father  had  but  his  village  to  look  round, 
but  with  flashes  of  lightning  the  son  sets  about  to  explore  the  whole 
world.  Numberless  possessions  and  pleasures  unknown  to  the  sim- 
ple father,  the  wiser  son  must  win  for  himself  and  his  fanrly  in  the 
sweat  of  his  brow,  at  the  highest  output  of  his  nervous  force,  at  the 
uttermost  charge  on  his  time.  He  has  to  provide  so  much  FOR 
himself,  so  much  FOR  his  wife  and  child,  that  he  has  no  time  to 
think  OF  himself,  OF  wife  and  child  ;  and  the  cares  for  the  house  es- 
trange him  from  the  home.  The  word  "  existence  "  has  assumed 
such  gigantic  proportions  that  life  is  entirely  absorbed  in  the  task  of 
earning  this  existence,  and  no  time  is  left  to  enquire  into  its  purpose 
and  aim,  its  value  and  meaning.  The  word  "  existence  "  has 
become  so  immense  a  problem  that  the  sum  total  of  all  human 
wisdom,  the  exploration  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  of  countries 
and  seas,  aye,  even  virtue  and  morality,  and  almost  even  charity 
and  benevolence,  have  to  provide  themselves  with  the  industrial 
hall-mark  of  economic  utility  in  order  to  obtain  recognition  and 
notice  from  a  bread-earning  humanity.  And  man,  created  to  be 
God's  image  in  wisdom  and  kindness,  in  love  and  justice  ;  created 
to  rejoice,  like  God,  in  his  work,  pants  under  the  yoke  of  the  toil 
of  the  earth,  dripping  with  sweat,  seeking  for  food,  and  no  longer 
hears  the  "  Where  art  thou  ?  "  of  God's  voice  wandering  up  and 
down  in  search  of  him. 

But  then  appears  the  messenger  from  Eden,  the  angel  of  God, 
the  Sabbath  approaches  him  and  says,  "  In  the  name  of  God  :  no 
further  !"  You  must  not  only  care  for  earthly  bread  for  yourself 
and  your  family.  You  sin  against  yourself,  your  wife  and  child,  if 
your  hand  is  always  busy  only  to  procure  food,  if  your  foot  is 
always  moving  only  to  find,  if  your  head  is  always  meditating 
only  how  to  gain,  the  means  of  a  livelihood.  Have  you  no  mind,  no 
heart,  no  soul  which  in  this  temporal  life  are  to  blossom  forth  into 


11 

eternal  salvation,  and  dare  you  let  your  souls  starve  and  wither 
while  you  keep  on  only  feeding  and  decking  your  bodies  ?  Enough 
of  labour!  Your  God  commands  that  you  SHALL  no  longer  labour, 
and  that  is  a  guarantee  that  you  NEED  not  labour,  that  you  have 
done  enough  when  you  have  honestly  worked  for  six  days.  "  If  you 
do  not  wish  to  deny  your  better,  eternal  self,  and  your  God,  then 
desist  from  working,  and  enter  your  home  with  me."  You  now 
stand  still,  and  the  panting  breast  ebbs  and  flows  more  calmly 
the  pulse  of  life  beats  more  placidly,  and  you  return  to  yourself. 
You  lay  down  the  yoke  of  labour,  you  wipe  the  sweat  from  your 
dripping  brow,  and  shake  off  the  dust  from  your  garments,  your 
forehead  regains  its  smoothness,  you  raise  your  eyes,  you  look 
above  and  around  —  you  smile.  And  now  you  hear  the  searching 
voice  from  Eden  calling  you  home  to  the  delightful  attractions  of 
your  family  circle  ;  to  the  cheering  side  of  wife  and  children.  It 
introduces  the  Sabbath  to  your  souls,  to  your  home  ;  and  your 
dwelling  becomes  transfigured.  No  house  is  so  small,  or  poor,  in 
which  God's  splendour  does  not  enter  with  the  Sabbath  !  The 
light  that  shines  in  you,  doubles  the  brightness  of  the  Sabbath-light  ; 
the  peace  that  dwells  in  you,  flavours  the  Sabbath  meal  ;  care, 
tears,  grief  and  sorrow,  all  these  the  Sabbath  banishes  from 
the  poorest  home.  "  Sabbath  has  come,  you  must  not  weep  !  " 
"  Sabbath  has  come,  you  must  not  mourn  !  "  The  Sabbath  has 
balm  and  comfort  for  all,  makes  all  rich  and  equal.  The  Sabbath 
says  to  each  one  : 


T  by  5U,,  "  Place  upon  God  the  burden  of 
your  way,  and  He  will  accomplish  it  !  "  If  you  have  done  your 
duty,  God  will  do  the  rest.  This  the  Sabbath  guarantees  you, 
because  it  bids  you,  in  His  name  to  cry  a  halt  to  your  cares  and 
troubles  and  labours.  It  shows  Him  to  you  as  your  Father  in 
heaven,  the  omnipotent  Ruler  and  Guide  of  the  times,  shows 
Him  to  you  as  your  God,  who  fights  your  battles  with  and  for 
you,  who  knows  your  troubles  and  feels  your  cares,  and  would 
gladly  take  from  you  the  greater  and  heavier  part  of  your  life's 
burden,  would  you  but  wish  and  entrust  it  to  Him. 

The  Sabbath  makes  all  rich  —  and  EQUAL  !  The  gains  for 
which  the  battle  of  the  week  is  fought,  separate  men  according 
to  the  amount  which  each  one  acquires.  Not  all  are  successful  in 


12 

the  struggle,  and  there  is  infinite  variety  in  the  results  achieved. 
But  the  treasures  of  paradise  which  the  Sabbath  dispenses  the 
peace,  the  divine  bliss,  the  repose,  these  are  granted  to  all  in 
equally  rich  abundance,  and  "  if  all  of  us  would  but  once  keep 
the  Sabbath  truly,  it  would  mean  redemption  for  all.  (Yalkut  on 
Psalm  95,  7). 

But  it  is  ONLY  to  GOD'S  SABBATH  that  such  a  wonderful  result 
is  vouchsafed,  only  when  GOD  bids  you  pause  in  your  labour,  can 
you  gain  rest.  In  vain  do  you  choose  for  yourself  another  day  of 
rest  during  the  week,  your  hand  may  be  idle,  your  foot  may  rest, 
your  body  may  feast,  but  it  is  only  God  who  calms  the  mind,  soothes 
the  heart,  revives  the  soul.  ONLY  WHEN  GOD  ORDAINS  the  repose 
you  have  the  assurance  that  you  may  repose,  and  find  in  God 
the  consummation  of  your  life. 

Only  God's  Sabbath  brings  you  rest. 


2.— THE  SABBATH  OF  THE  CREATION. 
"  Finished  were  the  heavens  and  the.  earth.*' 

We  have  considered  the  Jewish  Sabbath  in  its  widest  aspect 
and  have  seen  the  abundance  of  blessings  which  it,  and  it  alone, 
and  then  only  as  a  day  of  rest  ORDAINED  BY  GOD,  is  able  to 
bestow  upon  us.  But  the  Sabbath  is  much  more.  It  enshrines 
yet  a  far  richer  treasure  of  light  and  truth,  of  holiness  and  blessing, 
which  reveals  itself  to  us  the  more,  the  deeper  we  enter  into  its 
spirit,  and  the  less  we  are  content  to  contemplate  God's  command- 
ments merely  on  their  surface. 

For  are  not  God's  laws  like  His  works  !  Even  the  man  most 
ignorant  of  nature  delights  in  the  sight  of  heaven  and  earth,  is 
elevated  by  the  brilliancy  of  the  starry  sky,  is  charmed  by  the 
bloom  and  fragrance  of  the  flowers,  the  life  and  might  of  the  host 
of  living  things  ;  even  the  most  unschooled  is  uplifted  by  a 
careless  walk  through  God's  lovely  garden  of  nature.  But  how 


13 

different  becomes  your  delight  when  you  have  learnt  to  name 
a  few  of  the  stars  that  greet  you  from  the  sky,  how  different 
when  you  have  acquired  the  most  elementary  knowledge  of 
the  laws  by  which  we  believe  them  to  be  guided  in  their  orbits. 
With  quite  another  and  deeper  delight  do  you  contemplate  the 
flower,  the  fruit,  the  animal,  the  beast,  when  you  are  familiar 
with  the  laws  which  are  expressed  in  their  forms,  their  shapes, 
their  parts,  their  structure,  their  vascular  system,  their  sap,  and 
their  development.  Thus  informed  you  wander  thoughtfully  through 
God's  great  workshop;  thoughts  of  the  Master  greet  you  everywhere, 
nothing  that  you  find  there  is  insignificant,  or  trivial,  or  small  ; 
indeed  just  in  the  very  smallest  thing  do  you  admire  the  Divine 
skill  which  is  true  to  itself  even  in  the  finest  fibre. 

Thus  is  it  also  with  the  laws  of  God.  Even  to  the  most  ignorant 
their  fulfilment  brings  the  richest  blessing.  "  A  tree  of  life  they 
are  for  everyone  who  clings  to  them  !  "  But  the  more  you  ponder 
over  them,  the  more  intimate  you  become  with  the  ideas  which  God 
Himself  has  expressed  in  them,  the  more  clearly  you  perceive 
the  relations  that  exist  between  their  ordinance,  their  parts  and 
their  purposes  ;  the  more  will  they  become  for  you  an  inexhaustible 
source  of  instruction  and  blessing,  the  more  will  the  voice  of  the 
highest  wisdom  of  life  speak  to  you  even  from  the  smallest  organism, 
and  you  will  recognise  that  even  in  this  kingdom  of  God  "Ql  N*?  S3 
Kin  pi,  there  is  nothing  without  value  or  purpose,  nothing  small  or 
unimportant,  D2Q  Kin  pi  OKI,  and  if  anything  seems  to  us  to  be 
vain  and  purposeless,  mean  and  insignificant,  the  reason  for  it  is  to 
be  found  in  our  own  nature,  13  D'JW  DDK  pNSP  HO^,  because  we  do 
not  trouble  to  enter  into  its  meaning,  Kin  TID^K  D3"PI  Kin  'D 
13  pyjP  DHKtP  nyBO  DS^n,  or  else  we  would  perceive  even  in  the 
smallest  thing  a  source  of  life,  blessing  and  salvation. 

Having  therefore  first  of  all  considered  the  Sabbath  in  its 
general,  its  outward  appearance,  it  is  now  proper  for  us  to  review 
the  Divine  utterances  concerning  it,  as  we  find  them  preserved  in 
Holy  Writ. 

The  oldest  pronouncement  concerning  the  Sabbath  is  the  first 
to  arrest  our  attention.  It  shows  this  institution  to  us  as  the  key- 
stone and  crown,  the  aim  and  corn]  Micm  of  CREATION. 


14 

"  Completed  were  heaven  and  earth  and  all  the  host  of  them. 

Then  with  the  seventh  day,  God  comphted  His  work  which  He  had  made. 

And  Ood  blessed  the  seventh  day  and  sanctified  it, 

For  with  it  He  had  ceased  from  all  His  work. 

Which  God  had  created  in  order  to  complete  it."  —  Gen.  2,  1-4. 

The  Sabbath  calls  your  attention  to  the  conception  of 
jnKfTi,  viz.  :  the  conception  DN2V  93»  of  the  whole  great  host  of 
beings  which  fill  heaven  and  earth,  of  all  the  innumerable  warring 
and  contending  elements  and  forces  which  compose  this  N3Y,  this 
world  of  strife  (as  the  Rabbis  ingeniously  explain  the  expression) 
and  utters  the  pregnant  and  significant  words  :  "l^l,,  !  "VDHbD,  ! 
"  They  were  COMPLETED  !  "  "  They  are  one  WORK,  they  are 
His  WORK  !  "  and  pronouncing  "D^K/,  !  the  name  of  "  God  " 
throughout  the  spaces  of  the  universe,  with  blessing  and  sanctifica- 
tion  points  to  Him  who  completed  them,  to  Him  who  called  heaven 
and  earth  His  work. 


"  They  were  completed  !  "  They  not  only  arose  in 
their  time,  but  the  smallest  as  well  as  the  greatest  thing,  whether 
in  its  totality  or  in  part,  was  the  expression,  the  realisation  of  an 
idea  of  Him  who  did  not  rest  till  He  had  carried  out  and  completed 
His  idea.  The  fulfilment  of  His  idea  stands  before  you,  and  the 
Sabbath  directs  your  attention  to  Him,  who  conceived  the  idea  of 
OK3Y  731  ,  of  this  world  so  full  of  contrast  and  harmony,  of  discord 
and  peace,  of  hatred  and  love,  so  varied  and  yet  so  uniform  ;  the 
fulfilment  of  His  idea  stands  before  you. 


And  therefore  :  irDK^D  !  •JN'JD  :  Angel,  messenger, 
message,  mission,  task,  so  the  work  is  called  in  the  spirit  of  Holy 
Writ.  Every  work  is  rON^D,  the  embodiment,  the  realiser,  the 
executor  of  the  Master's  idea.  So  long  as  it  exists  and  operates, 
it  exists  and  operates  only  by  the  Master's  injunction  ;  and  though 
you  do  not  see  the  Master,  the  greatest  and  the  smallest  thing  is 
His  messenger,  His  message  tfOKte.  It  stands  there,  because  He 
has  placed  it  there  ;  it  works  and  operates  because  He  has  deter- 
mined the  form,  gauged  and  measured  the  force  and  material, 
originated  the  life  and  motion,  which  inform  every  action.  He 
has  said  :  Let  this  be,  let  this  effect  and  create  !  for  the  laws  of 
nature  which  you  descry  are  but  His  ordinances  ! 


15 


Fools  are  those  wise  men  who  ponder  day  and  night  over  their 
scientific  experiments,  watching  the  analytical  and  synthetic  pro- 
cesses which  are  at  work  in  the  subject  of  their  investigation, 
who  with  the  magnifying  glasses  of  their  short-sightedness  discover 
the  smallest  forms  and  with  the  telescope  explore  the  boundless 
expanse  in  their  distant  vision  ;  and  now,  because  through  the 
powers  given  to  them  by  the  Master  they  espy  wonder  after  wonder 
and  hold  His  works  in  their  crucibles  or  before  their  glasses  — 
imagine  that  it  is  the  MASTER  himself  whom  they  hold  and  survey. 


what  He  has  prepared  for  you  and  sent  you,  His 
servants,  His  masterpieces,  these  you  may  analyse  and  divide 
into  their  component  parts,  ascertain  the  results  of 
their  combination,  and  fathom  the  laws  of  their  evolution  ; 
you  may  learn  to  admire  more  and  more  the  great 
Master's  wisdom  and  power  in  the  immeasurable  expanse 
of  the  universe,  and  in  the  minuteness  of  almost  imper- 
ceptible things  —  but  you  are  fools  if  you  fancy  that  you 
have  the  Master  Himself  in  your  furnaces,  before  your  glasses, 
in  your  scales,  under  your  knives.  Fools  !  You  take  the  watch 
to  pieces  to  find  its  makei,  you  turn  over  the  pages  of  the  book  in 
search  for  its  author,  you  cut  up  the  picture  to  discover  the  painter- 
the  work,  the  ideas,  the  forms  are  your  world  !  But  HE,  the  Con- 
ceiver  of  the  idea,  the  Creator  of  the  work,  the  Moulder  of  the  form, 
HE  is  not.  to  be  found  in  your  retorts.  Even  the  more  exalted  of 
His  ideas,  the  spirit,  its  free  movement,  its  life,  are  not  to  be  found 
there.  You  ARE  NOT  EVEN  CAPABLE  OF  CONSTRUCTING  THE 

BEGINNING,    THE    VERY  FIRST    BEGINNING   OF  A   LIVJNG   ORGANISM. 

And  if  all  the  world  "  —  even  at  this,  the  proudest  moment  of 
modern  science,  the  saying  of  the  old  Rabbis  still  expresses  a 
truth  —  "  and  if  all  the  world  and  the  wisdom  of  the  whole  world 
were  to  combine,  they  would  not  be  able  to  form  the  tiniest 
gnat  !  "  Only  inanimate  matter  and  the  forces  which  operate 
in  inanimate  matter  are  your  kingdom.  At  the  first  begin- 
ning  of  life  your  brain  reels  and  your  sight  fails,  and  yet  you 
imagined  you  had  captured  Him,  the  unassisted  Creator  of  the  world 
in  which  you  live,  the  Selecter  of  the  materials  which  you  weigh, 
the  Originator  of  the  forces  which  you  study,  the  Moulder  of  the 
forms  which  you  measure,  the  Propounder  of  the  laws  which  you 


16 

investigate,  the  Giver  of  the  life  which  you  marvel  at,  the  Con- 
ceiver  of  the  thoughts  whose  alphabet  you  are  only  beginning  to 

Spell  !  HE  IN  HIS  FREEDOM,  AND  WHATSOEVER  HE  HAS  ENDOWED 
WITH  A  SHARE  OF  HIS  FREEDOM,  ARE  BEYOND  YOUR  ENUMERATION 
AND  MEASUREMENT. 

"  How  matter  separates  from  and  combines  with  matter,  how 
form  is  developed  from  form  and  rounded  off  "—for  this,  at  most  a 
standard  criterion  may  be  found,  but  how  even  the  smallest  atom 
of  the  simplest  substance  unites  with  even  the  simplest  kind  of 
organic  vesicle  to  serve  a  specific  purpose,  and  to  conform  to  a 
definite  pre-conceived  idea  ;  how  a  substance  void  of  thought 
becomes  joined  to  a  form  that  is  instinct  with  organised  thought, 
a  form  whose  creative  energy  and  omnipotence  meet  you  at  every 
step,  all  THIS  eludes  every  calculation  and  hypothesis,  since  the  sum 
total  of  all  BLINDLY  working  forces— which  are,  therefore, 
susceptible  of  calculation — is  not  sufficient  to  create  even  the 
smallest  fibre  of  a  form  which  reveals  a  THOUGHT.  And  to  this 
day,  and  for  all  future  time,  the  despised  wisdom  of  the  Rabbis  still 
remains  true :  "  Wherever,  form,  dimension,  organic  structure, 
i.e.  wherever  a  purpose  and  tendency  are  revealed,  all  the  elements 
and  substances  together  with  their  forces  are  insufficient  to  explain 
them,  and  you  are  inevitably'  driven  to  seek  the  ONE.  the  wise 
omnipotent  Creator,  who  plans  and  fixes  the  limit. — (R.  Yehuda 
HaVevi). 

Oh,  what  bliss,  what  glory  will  one  day  be  promoted  by  the  pearl 
of  the  century,  the  science  of  nature,  when  to  each  latest  "cosmos" 
the  spirit  of  the  old  Sabbath  shall  have  been  joined;  when  an  insight 
into  nature  shall  no  longer  obscure  the  recognition  of  the  Creator, 
when  the  Architect  shall  no  longer  be  forgotten  and  eclipsed  by  the 
building,  the  Creator  by  the  forces,  the  Law-giver  by  the  laws,  the 
Thinker  by  the  thought  ;  when  the  mortal  leaders  of  science  shall 
no  longer  be  here  with  their  alembics  and  scales,  their  glasses  and 
knives,  shaking  their  heads  and  saying  in  presumptuous  blindness  : 
only  what  we  feel  and  melt  and  weigh  and  see  and  measure  and 
count,  exists, — but  we  have  melted  and  weighed,  measured  and 
counted  and  have  not  found  God  :  when  only  the  mortal  leaders 
of  science  while  disclosing  new  vistas  of  "  nature  "  to  their  con- 
temporaries, shall  no  longer  rob  them  of  God  ;  when,  on  the 


17 

contrary,  each  fresh  draught  from  nature's  well  of  thought  shall 
increase  the  thirst  for  the  km  wledge  of  the  Conceiver  of  these 
thoughts,  and  each  newly-ascertained  law  shall  only  increase  the 
reverence  for  the  Law-giver,  and  each  newly-discovered  marvel  shall 
only  heighten  the  longing  for  communion  with  the  Master  ;  when  the 
most  devoted  explorer  of  the  cosmos  shall,  at  the  same  time,  be  the 
most  devoted  Sabbath-priest  in  the  glorification  of  God,  and,  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  the  old  Sabbath  shall  go  forth  as  its  herald,  and 
proclaim  to  the  spirits  and  minds  of  men  the  old  Sabbath  watch- 
word :  iroN^D  !  "  Behold  HIS  WORK  ! 


This  time  is  indeed  coming.  Its  herald  and  priest,  its  founda- 
tion and  SURETY  is  :  THE  SABBATH  OF  THE  CREATION., 

Heaven  arid  earth  and  the  whole  host  of  the  elements  that  won 
harmony  from  discord  were  completed,  but  God's  work  of  creation, 
rtirON'-B  !  "  was  not  yet  completed.  The  completion  of  His  works 
was  the  Sabbath.  WITH  THE  SEVENTH  DAY  ONLY  DID 
GOD  COMPLETE  His  WORK,  and  just  as  each  one  of  the  six  days 
fulfils  the  end  designed  for  it,  so  also  will  the  seventh,  the  Sabbath 
day  fulfil  ITS  appropriate  end.  Indeed  only  by  the  attainment 
of  the  purpose  of  the  Sabbath  will  a  true  crown  be  set  to  the  pre- 
ceding creations,  for  behold,  God  has  BLESSED  this  seventh  day  and 
solemnly  and  inviolably  SANCTIFIED  it. 

Heaven  and  earth,  the  whole  world  as  perceived  by  the  senses 
was  created.  But  not  merely  as  the  arena  for  unconscious  strife 
and  involuntary  conflict  did  God  create  this  world  ;  for  MAN  was 
already  here  uniting  in  this  world  of  contradictions,  the 
highest  contradictions  in  himself.  He  is  dust  from  dust, 
he  belongs  to  unconscious  matter  that  acts  and  is  acted  upon 
without  will,  yet  he  carries  within  himself  the  invisible,  and  etern- 
ally free  spirit  of  God,  and  because  of  this  Divine  spirit,  is  destined 
for  a  communion  that  sees  and  recognises  God,  and  for  a  moral 
activity  that  expresses  itself  in  the  free  worship  of  God.  He 
is  God's  image  on  earth  —  and  at  the  feet  of  this  creature  among 
creatures  the  whole  terrestrial  world  is  laid. 

If  he  fulfils  his  vocation,  then  joy,  all  contradictions  hna 
their  solution  in  him,  and  the  created  world  achieves  its  purpose. 
The  whole  world  originating  in  God  is  brought  back  again  to  God 


by  him,  and  not  only  do  all  things  on  earth  grow  from  God,  they 
grow  and  mature  in  Him  too.    The  MEDIATOR  AND  PRIEST  is  MAN. 

BUT  HOW,  IF  HE  BEGINS  TO  GO  ASTRAY  in  his  mission 
to  doubt  his  God,  and  thus  to  doubt  his  own,  innermost  nature  ; 
if  in  his  conflict  with  this  sensuous  world,  the  consciousness  of  his 
own  free  and  Divine  nature  becomes  obscured,  and  if,  in  the  inter- 
course with  this  sensuous  world  he  loses  the  consciousness  of  the 
invisible  and  free  God  ;  if  this  sensuous  world  becomes  everything 
to  him,  and  he  forgets  God,  out  of  whose  unassisted  thought  and 
will-power  this  sensuous  world  came  into  being,  and  with  the  aban- 
donment of  his  belief  in  God's  supreme  power,  he  loses  faith  also 
in  his  own  free  divine  nature,  and  he  learns  to  despair  of  God,  to 
despair  of  himself. 

LET     HIM     CONTEMPLATE     THE    SABBATH       IN    THE    CREATION  ! 

This  institution  is  for  ever  destined  to  accompany  man  on 
his  career  of  toil  and  struggle  on  earth,  and  after  six  days 
shall  have  drawn  his  glance  down  to  earth,  its  function  is  for  ever 
to  lift  it  up  again  and  to  show  him  the  One  whose,  "irOtf'ja/, 
whose  angel,  whose  messenger,  whose  agent  in  carrying  out  his 
injunctions  is  to  be  the  whole  of  creation,  but  whose  HIGHEST 
angel,  whose  HIGHEST  messenger,  whose  most  ENLIGHTENED 

SERVANT — THE  SERVANT  WHO  FULFILS  HIS  TASK  WITH  FREE  SELF- 
SURRENDERING  DEVOTION  IS  TO  BE  MAN  HIMSELF,  HIS  PRIEST  ON 
EARTH. 

And  this  Sabbath  was  introduced  into  the  creation,  this  Sabbath 
which  was  added  as  the  seventh  day  of  creation  was  made  the 
crown  and  coping  stone,  the  completion  and  condition  to  the  six 
preceding  days,  the  six  preceding  days  revolving  round  the  seventh 
day,  the  whole  world  of  sense  being  bound  up  with  the  Sabbath. 
The  whole  material  welfare  of  man  on  earth  has  also  been  linked 
with  the  Sabbath  ;  "  blessing  and  holiness,  progress  and  cosmic 
stability  are  all  ultimately  founded  on  the  Sabbath.  And  behold, 
man's  moral  nature,  and  man's  moral  and  divinely  inspired  vocation 
is  found  after  all  to  be  no  dream,  no  fairy  tale  !  "  Heaven  and  earth 
are  witnesses  of  his  spiritual  destiny  and  guarantees  of  its  realisa- 
tion !  "  Heaven  and  earth  smile  kindly  upon  his  labours,  so  long 
as  in  the  execution  of  his  work  he  is  filled  with  the  spirit  of  the 
Sabbath  so  long  as  he  lives  and  toils  on  earth  with  earnest  moral 


endeavour  according  to  the  Divine  will.    MAKE  HIM  THE  LORD  AND 

MASTER  OF  THE  WHOLE  OF  THE  SIX  DAYS'  WORLD,  let  his  acknow- 
ledge embrace  the  universal  conquests  of  all  the  secrets  of  nature, 
give  him  wings  to  soar  through  the  air,  make  lightning  the  messenger 
of  his  thoughts,  harness  clouds  to  his  triumphal  car,  BUT  IF  YOU 
STRIKE  THE  SABBATH  OUT  OF  HIS  WORLD  you  cause  him  to  deny  his 
God  and  his  own  spiritual  destiny — and  the  earth,  that  was  to 
be  his  paradise,  becomes  his  grave.  For  the  SABBATH,  is  a  part  of 
the  WORLD'S  CREATION,  a  part  of  the  WORLD'S  ORDER. 

It  is  not  the  mere  output  ot  perspiring  toil  that  wrings  the  fruit 
out  of  the  ground.  The  consciousness  of  God  and  the  moral  aim  of 
the  toiler  are  no  less  indispensable  conditions  of  blessing.  The  first 
Sabbath  greeted  humanity  already  at  the  threshold  of  paradise. 
And  as  the  spirit  of  the  Sabbath  continued  more  and  more  to  depart 
from- humanity,  blessing  departed  from  nature  too,  and  the  WHOLE 
HISTORY  of  the  WORLD  became  NOTHING  MORE  than  the  RECORD 
of  the  VAIN  ENDEAVOUR  TO  REGAIN,  WITHOUT  the  SABBATH,  the  LOST 
PARADISE  on  EARTH.  "  The  earth  mourneth,  the  earth  fadeth  away 
so  long  as  the  world  of  man  languisheth  and  fadeth  away.  But 
God  brings  back  the  new  heaven  and  earth  when  the  spirit  of  the 
Sabbath  shall  have  asserted  itself  victoriously,  and  "  with  every 
new  moon,  and  with  every  Sabbath  all  flesh,  shall  come  to 
worship  before  Me,  saith  the  Lord."  (Is.  xxiv.,  4  ;  Ixvi.  23.) 


3.— THE  SABBATH  IN  THE  WILDERNESS 

THE    SABBATH    HAD    DISAPPEARED    FROM   THE   EARTH,     for  two 

thousand  years  the  Sabbath  had  been  banished  from  human 
life.  Man  knelt  before  a  creature  of  sense,  and  trembled 
before  the  numberless  forces  and  material  powers  which  everywhere 
hampered  his  existence  and  clogged  his  efforts  on  earth.  Man 
felt  himself  at  war  with  nature  and  every  fragment  snatched  from 
nature  only  became  in  his  hand  a  weapon,  which  made  history  only 
a  panorama  of  human  strife  and  contention.  War  was  upon 
earth,  man's  creative  genius  was  turned  to  violence,  his 
creative  spirit  to  cunning  and  craft,  selfishness  and  love  of  pleasure. 
*'  To  be  and  to  enjoy,"  were  his  watch-words  on  earth,  and  in  this 


20 

watchword  each  one  had  thought  only  for  himself.  WITH 
REGARD  TO  NATURE,  MEN  TREMBLED  before  the  dark 
powers  ruling  therein.  The  mysterious  essence  of  the  smallest 
worm,  the  mysterious  properties  of  the  living  fibre  of  wood 
terrified  him  ;  and  this  man  trembling  before  the  smallest 
worm,  before  the  slightest  quiver  of  nature,  himself  became 
a  terror  to  his  fellow-man.  MAN  TREMBLED  BEFORE  TREM- 
BLING MAN.  War  of  humanity  with  nature,  war  of 
man  with  man  had  become  the  meaning  of  life  on 
earth,  passion  and  greed,  fear  and  hatred  its  levers.  How  to 
save  oneself  from  nature,  how  to  make  her  powers  subservient,  how 
to  save  oneself  from  the  rivalry  of  a  competing  brother,  and  how 
to  turn  a  brother's  competition  to  one's  own  advantage, — this  was 
the  sum  and  substance  of  man's  wisdom  ;  for  the  Sabbath  had 
vanished  from  the  earth. 

THE  SABBATH  HAD  DISAPPEARED  AND  WITH  IT  THE  CON- 
SCIOUSNESS OF  THE  ONE  AND  ONLY  MASTER  and  Lord,  whose 
thought  and  will  alone  are  active  as  well  in  the  infinite  in  the  whole 
as  in  the  minutest  fragment.  The  Sabbath  had  disappeared  and 
with  it  went  the  consciousness  of  the  only  DIGNITY  AND  DIS- 
TINCTION WHICH  MAN  POSSESSED  in  this  great  divine  universe. 
Man  is  the  one  being  with  whom  the  One  and  only  Master  of  the 
universe  is  bound  by  a  special  covenant,  into  whom  He  has  breathed 
a  spark  of  His  own  free  and  eternal  nature,  and  with  this  breath  has 
destined  him,  not  to  be  a  slave  of  nature  or  a  tyrant  of  his  brother, 
but  His  FIRST  FREE  SERVANT  in  a  divinely  governed  world  to  whom 
He  entrusted  the  promotion  of  liberty,  of  truth  and  justice,  of  love 
and  blessing.  With  the  passing  of  the  Sabbath  there  went 
too  the  consciousness  that  ONE  free  God-pleasing  emotion  in  the 
human  heart,  ONE  free  God-pleasing  human  word,  ONE  free 
God-pleasing  human  act  possessed  of  more  power  than  all  the  mighty 
thunder  of  the  chained  and  imprisoned  forces  of  nature,  and  that 
man  need  only  be  GOOD  to  see  the  earth  at  his  feet.  With  the 
passing  of  faith  in  God's  Sabbath,  there  disappeared  too  the  faith 
in  man's  divine  nature,  in  man's  moral  freedom,  in  the  divine 
empire  over  his  moral  thought,  speech  and  life.  The  belief  had 
ffone,  that  the  One  and  only  Master  of  the  world  had  promised  His 
covenant,  His  assistance,  and  His  blessing  to  Man's  free  moral 
choice  and  only  to  man's  free  moral  choice  ;  and  that  it  is  not  the 


21 

knowledge  which  comprehends,  it  is  not  the  art  that  overcomes 
nature,  it  is  not  man's  calculating  cleverness,  it  is  not  man's 
will  that  holds  man  in  subjection — but  the  knowledge 
which  realises  God,  the  art  which  serves  Him,  the  wisdom  which 
comprehends  Him,  and  the  deed  which  emulates  Him  and  sheds 
blessing  on  mankind  ;  it  is  these  which  are  able  to  secure  man's 
welfare  on  earth. 

The  Sabbath  was  lacking,  and  for  two  thousand  years  the 
Sabbath  stood  by  God's  throne  :  "  To  everything  Thou  hast  assigned 
a  friend  and  an  upholder,  only  I  stand  without  a  friend,  without 
an  upholder,  disdained,  forgotten." 

Then  it  was  that  a  human  family  in  whose  bosom  a  spark  of 
God's  pure  consciousness  had  taken  refuge,  was  cast  by  Him  into 
the  iron  crucible  of  an  Egypt  that  had  forgotten  God.  During  a 
long  night  lasting  for  centuries,  He  made  them  experience  the  utter 
misery,  the  infinite  woe,  the  absolute  curse  of  a  tyranny  that  inherent 
in  a  nature-cult  which  is  without  the  humanising  influence  of  the 
Sabbath.  At  last  He  had  taught  the  gods  and  tyrants  of  Egypt  to 
tremble  before  His  finger,  and  before  the  pure  God-adoring  spirit 
which  swayed  the  heart  of  a  slave,  for  whose  deliverance  and 
redemption  the  hand  of  the  world's  Master  was  to  be  uplifted.  He 
had  SHOWN  that  the  most  abject  slave,  without  any  possession  or 
rights  whatsoever,  when  supported  by  a  free  and  untrammelled  faith 
in  God  was  more  powerful  than  all  the  power  that  denied  Him, 
and  was  armed  with  all  the  terrors  that  are  wielded  by  the  forces 
of  nature  and  of  man.  He  had  burst  chains  and  had  divided  the 
sea's  waves  for  Israel  and  had  now  led  them  into  the  wilderness, 
there  to  begint  he  redemption  of  mankind — there  to  make  them 

FIND    THE    SABBATH. 

-  "  Would  that  we  had  died  by  the  hand  of  God  in  the  land  of 
Egypt  where  we  sat  by  the  flesh  pots  and  did  eat  bread  to  the 
full  !  You  have  brought  us  into  the  wilderness  to  let  this  whole 
assembly  die  of  hunger  !  " 

"  I  am  here  !  "  said  God  unto  Moses,  "  I  will  rain  bread  from 
heaven  for  you  :  the  people  shall  go  out  and  gather  the  daily 
requirements  every  day,  that  I  may  prove  them,  whether  they  will 


22 

walk  in  My  law  or  not.  But  on  the  sixth  day  when  they  shall  prepare 
what  they  have  brought  home,  it  shall  be  twice  as  much  as  what 
they  otherwise  gather  daily." 

•  -  -  "  This  is   the   bread   which  God   has  given  you  for    food  1 
But  this  is  the  word  that  God  has  commanded  :   Gather  of  it  every 
man  according  to  his  needs.     According  to  the  number  of  your 
souls  let  every  man  take  for  them  that  are  in  his  tents  a  measure  for 
each  head. 

-  -  -  Then   they    gathered,  some     more,     some  less.      But    when 
they  did  measure  it  with  a  measure,  he  that  gathered  much,  had 
no  more,  and  he  that  gathered  little,  had  no  less.    But  each  one  had 
gathered  according  to  his  need  of  food. 

Let  no  one  leave  of  it  till  the  morning  ! 

Some    of    them  left    of  it  till    the  morning  ;    then    it  bred 

worms  and  became  rotten,  and  Moses  was  wroth  with  them. 

So  they  gathered  every  morning,  each  one  according  to  his 
needs  :  When  the  sun  grew  hot  it  melted. 

Then  it  was  that  on  the  sixth  day  they  gathered  twice  as  much 
bread,  two  measures  for  each  one.  And  all  the  rulers  of  the  con- 
gregation came  and  told  Moses. 

But  he  answered  them  :  That  is  what  God  has  said  !  The 
Sabbath  rest,  God's  holy  Sabbath  is  to-morrow!  What  you  want 
to  bake,  bake  it  to-day,  what  you  want  to  boil,  boil  it  to-day,  and 
everything  that  remaineth  keep  it  for  to-morrow.  And  they  kept 
it  till  the  morning  as  Moses  bade  them.  It  mouldered  not,  and 
no  worm  was  in  it.  Then  Moses  said  :  Eat  it  to-day  for  to-day  is 
God's  holy  Sabbath,  to-day  you  will  not  find  it  in  the  field.  Six 
days  you  shall  gather  but  on  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath,  on 
it  there  shall  be  none.  But  on  the  seventh  day  some  of  the  people 
went  to  gather  and  they  found  none. 

Then  God  said  to  Moses  :  How  long  do  you  refuse  to  keep  My 
commandments  and  My  teachings.  See  for  that  God  hath  given 
you  the  Sabbath,  therefore,  He  giveth  you  on  the  sixth  day  the 


23 

bread  of  two  days.     Let  every  man  abide  in  his  place  on  the  seventh 
day.     So  the  people  kept  the  Sabbath  on  the  seventh  day. 

—  But  the  children  of  Israel  ate  manna  for  forty  years,  until  they 
came  to  an  inhabited  land.  They  ate  manna  until  they  came  to 
the  borders  of  the  land  of  Canaan.  (Ex.,  chap.  16.) 

Thus  you  see  the  Sabbath  given  to  every  cottage,  to  every 
human  soul,  and  the  life  of  a  whole  generation  pledged  and  pro- 
mised two  thousand  times  over  ! 

Why  do  you  tremble  before  the  forces  of  NATURE,  why  do 
you  court  her  favour — the  Sabbath  tears  you  from  her  altars,  and 
throws  you  into  the  arms  of  Him  who  begat  you  ;  shows  you  nature's 
one  and  only  Lord  and  Master,  the  all-powerful,  the  all  prevading, 
all  over-ruling  who  is  yet  near  you  with  the  most  fervent  love, 
shows  you  "l"njO  D'DB>  33H,  the  Director  of  the  heavenly  paths 
— by  your  side.  The  Sabbath  assigns  you  a  position  above  and 
outside  nature  in  the  covenant  which  she  has  established  with  her 
God  and  yours. 

He  who  fixes  the  number  of  stars, 

He  who  gives  the  stars  their  names, 

The  great  all-powerful  Lord, 

Encompasseth  the  infinite  with  His  spirit, 

He  giveth  length  of   days  to  every  meek  human  soul. 

And  casteth  the  wicked  to  the  ground  ! 

Who  covereth  the  heaven  with  clouds, 

Who  prepareth  rain  for  the  earth, 

Who  maketh  herbs  to  grow  upon  the  mountains, 

Who  giveth  to  the  beast  their  food, 

The  young  ravens  what  they  cry  for, 

He  delighteth  not  to  trust  in  the  strength  of  horses, 

He  desirethhim  not  to  trust  the  strength  of  his  legs, 

He  is  near  in  love  to  them  that  fear  Him, 

That  hope  in  His  mercy. — (Psalm  147,  4-6  ;    8-11). 

As  near  as  He  is  to  the  whole  great  universe  So  NEAR  is  HE 
TO  EACH  INDIVIDUAL  SOUL.  He  poureth  out  the  whole 
fulness  of  His  world-swaying  power,  the  whole  fulness  of  His  world- 
sustaining  love  for  the  benefit  of  each  individual,  even  the  poorest, 
human  soul.  Even  to  count  every  single  person  in  a  human 
habitation  is  not  too  insignificant  for  Him.  He  makes  heaven  and 
earth  revolve  in  order  to  feed  ONE  starving  human  creature  day  by 
day,  for  with  God  heaven  and  earth  do  not  outweigh  even  ONE 
human  soul  that  worships  Him  and  inclines  towards  Him  in  love. 


24 

But  to  RECOGNISE  God  and  to  TRUST  in  God,  that  is  the  corner 
stone  of  the  whole  divine  teaching.  The  SABBATH  therefore 
stands  supreme  before  all  laws  in  the  aim  to  establish  this  recogni- 
tion and  trust  in  God  on  a  firm  foundation,  so  that  you  may  be 
EDUCATED  by  this  PROBATION  to  realise  your  faith  in  Him. 

To  build  temples  to  God,  to  beautify  altars  for  God,  to  sing 
Halleluiah  to  God,  to  declare  one's  trust  in  God,  in  words,  in  poems, 
in  hymns,  —  this  is  not  the  essential  thing  ;  —  to  have  His  name  in 
one's  mouth,  but  not  to  have  the  courage  to  forego  the  smallest 
profit  in  life,  or  to  give  up  the  smallest  enjoyment  for 
the  sake  of  that  name  —  this  is  not  the  essential  thing. 
To  serve  GOD  IN  TEMPLES  while  IN  LIFE  you  serve  the  CREATURE, 
THAT  SURELY  is  NOT  JUDAISM,  that  is  not  the  Jewish  freedom 
that  has  been  sent  to  redeem  and  bless  mankind.  But  to  show  IN 
and  THROUGHOUT  your  life,  your  knowledge  of  and  trust  in  God, 
gladly  to  retreat  into  a  desert  with  wife  and  child  if  God's  word 
calls  you  there,  to  be  prepared  for  His  sake  to  renounce 
goods  and  chattels,  gain  and  pleasure,  strength  and  life;  not  to  trem- 
ble if,  for  His  sake,  the  world  around  you  were  to  become  a  desert  ; 
not  to  tremble  if,  in  order  to  fulfil  His  word  you  had  to  forfeit  the 
favour  of  nature  and  man;  to  reject  the  flesh  pots  of  Egypt  and  the 
bread  made  by  man,  and  to  accept  it  only  from  God's  hands  ;  not 
to  tremble  even  if  you  know  not  to-day  whence  your  bread  may 
come  to-morrow,  to  regard  as  rottenness  and  corruption  that  which 
the  God-denying  narrow-hearted  man  gathers  and  enjoys,  but  cheer- 
fully to  await  His  blessing  from  the  smallest  thing  that  He 
bestows  upon  you  as  a  reward  for  your  efforts  to  please  Him  — 
THIS  is  JUDAISM  —  And  to  train  for  this  Judaism,  to  prove  your- 
self in  this  Judaism,  to  test  yourself  again  and  again  whether 
you  are  strong  enough  for  such  Judaism,  for  this—  the  Sabbath 
was  sent  you.  THE  SABBATH  is  THE  TOUCH-STONE  OF  THE  JEW. 
On  the  Sabbath  you  are  to  bo  tested  again  and  again  whether 
your  Judaism,  and  your  knowledge  of  and  trust  in  God  are 
genuine.  '.K1?  DK 


CALL  YOURSELF  NO  LONGER  A  JEW  IF  YOU  DO  NOT  KEEP  THE 
SABBATH,  no  longer  call  yourself  a  Jew  if  your  knowledge  of 
and  trust  in  God  do  not  stand  the  test  of  the  Sabbath.  By  the 
Sabbath  your  God  wishes  to  see  whether  He  may  still  count  you 
among  His  people  or  not.  BECAUSE  WITH  THE  SABBATH  JUDAISM 

STANDS  OR  FALLS. 


25 

Of  all  God's  holy  institutions  none,  therefore,  was  so  carefully 
prepared,  none  subjected  to  so  long  and  continuous  a  trial,  none  so 
repeatedly  attuned  to  human  consciousness  and  human  recognition, 
as  the  SABBATH.  In  none  of  God's  holy  institutions  was  Israel 
so  expressly  and  continuously  trained  and  educated  as  in  the  Sab- 
bath. Just  as  the  first  institution  to  greet  Israel  on  his  entering 
the  desert  was  the  Sabbath,  so  we  may  say  that  the  whole  of  his 
forty  years'  journey  in  the  wilderness  was  nothing  more 
than  an  education  for  the  Sabbath :  Hence  every  complaint 
and  murmuring  in  the  wilderness  against  the  long-suffering 
Father  was  nothing  more  than  a  sin  against  the  Sabbath 
spirit.  Indeed,  if  you  go  through  the  whole  history  of 
your  people,  you  will  find  that  every  misfortune  which 
befel  Israel,  again  and  again  arose  solely  from  the  fact  that  the 
Sabbath  spirit  had  not  completely  penetrated  their  minds. 

For  FORTY  YEARS  the  Sabbath  had  its  pledge  and  guarantee 
in  Israel.  No  child  in  Israel  could  be  in  doubt  as  to  which  was  the 
Lord's  day  )03  IBHpl  |03  1D13,  every  Sabbath  was  announced 
already  on  the  Friday  by  the  two-fold  measure  of  the  manna,  and 
every  Sabbath  stood  forth,  sanctified  by  God,  and  proclaimed  as  a 
day  on  which  man  was  to  refrain  from  going  forth  to  seek  his  food, 
'"6  DVfl  B>np,  because  the  day  was  to  be  holy  unto  God  !  On 
the  Sabbath  manna  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  field. 

For  FORTY  YEARS  the  people  were  taught  UT\bn  by  *b  O 
DINn  rrfP  r\$b  tha*  it  was  not  only  the  bread  gained  from  nature  by 
human  art  which  nourishes  man  :  DIKH  PPPP  '1  'fi  NY10  bl  by  "O 
but  the  favour  of  God  which  man  had  to  seek. 

For  FORTY  YEARS  the  people  were  taught  that  God  desires 
man's  industry,  that  he  should  not  turn  his  week  days  into  holidays, 
but  that  on  the  other  hand  he  must  not  be  utterly  absorbed  in  this 
struggle  for  a  subsistence,  he  must  not  sacrifice  the  present  for  the 
future.  The  people  were  taught  that  God's  blessing  would  be  as 
certain  to-morrow  as  it  was  to-day,  that,  trusting  in  God,  they  could 
rejoice  every  day,  and  trusting  in  God,  might  rest  on  the  seventh 
day.  THAT  ONLY  TRUST  IN  GOD  WOULD  ENSURE  MAINTENANCE 

AND  BLESSING,  BUT  THAT  MATERIAL   POSSESSIONS  GAINED  THROUGH 


26 

THE  DENIAL  OF  GOD,  WOULD  BEAR  IN  THEMSELVES  THE  GERM  OF 
PUTREFACTION. 

And  this  lesson  which  seems  so  simple,  for  which  our  fore- 
fathers were  trained  for  forty  years,  is  to  remain  Israel's  everlasting 
heritage.  "Because,  however  simple  the  lesson  may  seem,  yet  it 
and  it  alone  bears  within  it  the  possibilities  of  holiness  and  happi- 
ness, peace  and  blessing  for  humanity. 

WITH     THE      SABBATH      BEGINS      THE        TRANSFORMATION        OF 

MAN.  The  Sabbatli  man  is  a  new  man.— He  looks  upon  nature 
and  history,  God  and  humanity,  himself  and  his  relations  to 
nature  and  to  God  and  to  his  fellow  creatures  with  different  eyes. 

He  does  not  crawl  or  tremble  before  nature,  he  does  not  bend 
his  knee  before  the  "  groves  and  bats  " — the  name  of  God  has 
made  him  FREE,  free  from  the  terrors  of  nature's  forces  ;  his 
covenant  with  God  uplifts  his  soul  above  all  nature's  empire, 
"  in  heaven  he  has  but  Him,  and  beside  Him  he  needs  nothing 
on  earth  ! " 

He  does  not  lord  it  over  nature.  The  name  of  God  has  made 
him  HUMBLE.  Notwithstanding  all  the  power  with  which  he 
rules  nature,  he  humbly  bows  his  head  before  the  one  higher  Creator 
and  Master,  and  desires  to  use  the  strength  granted  to  him  only 
in  the  saving  service  of  Him  who  has  placed  him  in  nature's  garden, 
"  to  protect  and  to  perfect  it  !  " 

He  does  not  crawl  and  tremble  before  the  power  of  man.  The 
name  of  GOD  has  made  him  FREE,  free  from  the  fear  of  man,  and 
the  worship  of  man.  God  is  as  near  to  the  humble  cottage,  as  He 
is  to  the  most  magnificient  mansion  ;  the  souls  of  His  children  in 
the  meanest  cradle  are  of  as  much  account  as  the  scions  of 
things  swathed  in  silk.  God  is  as  near  to  the  man  of  quiet,  humble 
calling  as  He  is  to  the  much  trumpeted  hero, — and  if  God  is  with 
him  in  his  quiet  pure  labour,  what  can  man  do  to  him  ? 

He  is  no  enemy  in  the  family  of  man.  The  name  of  God  has 
made  him  free,  free  from  envy  and  arrogance,  from  hatred  and 
emnity,  from  revenge  and  violence.  Just  as  he  feels  himself  bound 
up  with  God,  so  he  sees  God's  name  stamped  upon  everyone  of  his 


27 

brethren.  Hence  this  name  draws  everyone  near  to  him,  as  to  a 
brother,  and  teaches  him  to  regard  every  one's  circle  as  a  divinely 
hallowed  place.  He  neither  looks  disdainfully  upon  the  poorest  of 
his  brethren,  nor  envies  the  richest.  He  grudges  no  one  his  bless- 
ing, no  one  his  share  of  the  possessions,  pleasures  and  honours, 
which  God  has  conferred  upon  him.  "  He  who  gathers  much  has 
in  his  eyes  no  more,  he  who  gathers  little  has  in  his  eyes  no  less 
than  the  measure  allotted  by  God  to  each  person." 

"  COMPETITION  ",  this  word  of  blessing  and  of  curse  which 
drives  the  man  without  a  Sabbath  into  the  sweat  and  dust  of  the 
race  after  fortune,  which  transforms  the  friendly  eye  that  was  made 
to  smile  genially  upon  every  fellow-worker,  into  a  killing  look  of 
envy  ;  which  clenches  in  violence  and  cruel  treachery  the  hand  that 
was  made  to  grasp  every  fellow-man's  hand  in  frank  and  hearty  and 
sympathetic  grip  ;  which  locks  up  the  heart,  that  divine  human 
heart  in  which  mercy  and  love  that  are  for  ever  aspiring  unto  God 
should  dwell,  with  the  locks  of  envy,  malice  and  hatred  ;  which 
dwarfs  the  spirit,  that  divine  spirit  which  was  destined  to  be  a  torch 
of  truth  and  justice  and  redeeming  wisdom,  into  a  will  o'  the  wisp  of 
falsehood,  injustice  and  violence  ;  "  competition  "  which  has  trans- 
formed society  from  a  brotherhood  that  rejoiced  in  the  blessing  of 
God  into  a  horde  of  endless  fratricidal  strife  ;  "  competition,"  how- 
ever, for  the  Sabbath  observer  has  lost  its  baneful  power.  He  is 
not  here  to  build  his  house  on  the  ruins  of  his  neighbour's  fortune  ; 
heis  not  here  to  put  his  proud  and  domineering  foot  upon  his 
brother's  neck.  His  brother's  cannot  raise  him}  his  brother's  elev- 
ation cannot  hinder  him.  His  God  is  rich  enough  to  maintain  with 
blessing  the  millions  of  homes  striving  in  purity.  And  as  the  bitter 
poison  of  envy  is  driven  out  of  the  breast  of  man  who  keeps  the 
Sabbath,  the  paradise  blossoms  of  LOVE  and  CHARITY  grow  up  in 
its  place  inspiring  him  with  their  gracious  perfume  to  realise  his 
greatest  blessing  in  the  blessing  which  he  lovingly  prepares  for  his 
fellow  mortals. 

That  DELUSION  of  the  SABBATH-DESECRATOR  which  teaches 
man  "  to  have  his  god  only  in  his  hand  "  which  makes  man  "  wor- 
ship his  net  of  violence  and  drag  of  cunning  because  by  them 
his  portion  is  a  fat  one  and  his  food  savoury,"  THAT  delusion 
makes  "  man  like  the  fish  of  the  sea,  like  worms  that  have  no 


28 

• 

master  "  ;  because  under  it  humanity  has  lost  its  only  hold,  its 
God. 

On  the  contrary,  by  the  Sabbath,  every  human  home  and  heart 
recognises  in  God  not  only  the  God  of  the  universe,    but    THE 

ETERNALLY  EXALTED  GOD  WHO  IS  EVER  NEAR  TO  EVERY  HUMAN 

DWELLING  and  to  EVERY  HUMAN  HEART,  under  Whose  care  and 
guidance  every  dwelling  and  every  soul  truly  reposes.  With  this 
knowledge  and  this  HOLY  aspiration  salvation  is  brought  to 
every  dwelling  and  peace  to  every  soul. 

Give  the  world  the  Sabbath  and  you  will  break  the  fetters  and 
heal  the  wounds  of  mankind. 


4.— THE  SABBATH  OF  THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS. 

Remember  the  Sabbath  day  to  keep  it  holy. 

Six  days  thou  ahalt  labour  and  do  all  thy  work  ; 

But  the  seventh  day  it  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  Ood, 

In  it  thou  shalt  do  no  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy 

manservant,  nor  thy  maidservant, t  hy  cattle  and  also  the  stranger 

within  thy  gates, 
For  in  six  days  Ood  created  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  is  in 

and  upon  them,  and  rested  on  the  seventh  day 
Therefore    God    has    blessed  the    seventh    day    and    hallowed     it. — 

(Ex.  20,  8-11.) 

In  the  wilderness,  Israel  found  the  Sabbath  again,  and  the 
Sabbath  found  Israel.  In  the  wilderness  where  the  life  of  man  was 
visibly  maintained  by  divine  mercy  ;  where  every  crumb  of 
manna  was  a  reminder  of  God,  the  Creator  and  Lord,  of  God,  the 
Ruler  and  Disposer,  the  Father,  Protector,  and  Sustainer  of  every 
human  being,  of  every  human  heart  ;  in  the  wilderness  where 
man  was  so  absolutely  nothing,  and  God  was  so  evidently  every- 
thing ;  in  the  wilderness  it  was  difficult  to  forget  God,  it  was  diffi- 
cult not  to  remember  the  Sabbath. 

But  the  wilderness  was  not  Israel's  final  destination,  and  to 
proclaim  the  knowledge  of  God  in  this  unique  situation  so  full  of 
miracles  was  not  the  whole  sum  of  Israel's  mission.  Israel  was 
to  ENTER  the  COMITY  OF  NATIONS  with  his  idea  of  God  matured 
on  his  own  soil.  He  was  to  develop  a  political  life  in  all  its 
unity  and  diversity.  The  pillar  of  cloud  and  the  pillar  of 


29 

fire  remained  in  the  wilderness,  the  manna  ceased  as  soon 
as  Israel  set  foot  on  an  inhabited  land  From  that 
time  forth  there  were  fields  to  be  tilled,  vineyards  to  be 
planted,  meadows  to  be  looked  after,  flocks  to  be  tended,  crafts 
to  be  practised,  justice  to  be  administered,  and  order  to  be 
established.  Henceforth,  like  all  other  human  societies,  Israel  was 
to  wring  from  nature  by  the  exercise  of  human  intelligence  and 
human  strength  the  means  of  a  livelihood,  the  privilege  of  owner- 
ship and  happiness  ;  and  by  the  exercise  of  human  intelligence  and 
strength  to  bind  the  community  to  the  individual  and  to  adjust 
the  liberty  of  the  individual  to  the  law  established  by  the  com- 
munity. In  this  political  STATE  where  man  and  nature  show 
themselves  in  all  respects  and  effects,  the  latter  either  subordinate 
to  or  master  of  the  mind  of  man  ;  in  this  POLITICAL  LIFE, 
where  man  seems  to  be  everything,  where  his  intellect, 
his  strength,  his  power,  his  art,  his  inventions,  his 
institutions  appear  to  be  predominating  factors  ;  in  this 
political  life  where  man  rules  like  a  creator — there  was 
and  always  is  near  at  hand — the  danger  that  the  idea  of  "  God  " 
might  recede  more  and  more  into  the  background  ;  that  man  might 
say,  H*1  D^iyi  TD  "  my  strength  and  my  power,"  that  he  might 
forget,  h*n  fllPy1?  PIS  ~}b  pun  Kin  ^3,  to  whom  he  owes  his  strength, 
who  has  given  him  his  intellect,  which  has  made  nature  his  servant, 
who  is  nature's  and  his  own  Creator  and  Master,  in  whose  service 
and  for  whose  satisfaction  he  is  to  exercise  his  strength.  In  this 
political  life  THE  DANGER  is  EVER  PRESENT  THAT  ECONOMY 

AND    POLITICS    BECOME    THE    TWO    GODS    OF    MAN,      and  GOD    who 

should  be  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  all  human  effort,  is 
effaced,  and  all  the  claims  of  truth  and  justice,  of  morality,  of  holi- 
ness and  of  love,  claims  which  bring  human  life  into  harmony  with 
God,  and  crown  it  with  dignity  and  importance,  with  salvation  and 
blessing,  have  at  most  to  be  satisfied  with  only  a  fragment  of  the 
incense-laden  feast,  and  often  do  not  get  even  that  fragment, 
because  they  add  nothing  to  wealth  that  is  purely  industrial  and 
political,  but  on  the  contrary  frequently  require  sacrifices  of  strength 
and  power.  The  danger  is  so  imminent,  and  it  should  not  befall 
Israel  ;  indeed,  Israel  was  sent  for  the  very  purpose  of  averting 
this  danger  ! 

It  was  not  without  purpose  then  that  God  had  delivered  them 


30 

out  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage  ;  it  was  not  without  pur- 
pose that  God  made  them  realise  the  full  curse  of  a  life,  whether  in  a 
state  of  nature  or  organised,  which  is  at  war  with  God  and  would  deny 
Him  ;  it  was  not  without  purpose  that  God  had  shown  them,  and 
through  them  all  mankind,  how  all  the  gods  of  the  earth  tremble 
before  His  finger,  how  He  is  not  only  the  God  of  nature,  but  also 
the  God  of  history,  not  only  the  God  of  heaven,  but  also  the  God 
of  earth,  and  not  only  the  God  of  earth  but  the  God  also  of  states 
and  cities,  of  cottages  and  houses  ;  and  that  no  prince  on  his  throne, 
and  no  slave  under  his  load  are  too  high  or  too  low  that  He  should 
not  be  near  to  them,  judging,  punishing,  helping,  saving — it  was  not 
without  purpose  that  He  made  them  pass  through  this  great  and 
unique  experience  when  bringing  them  into  the  domain  of  human 
history. 

On  the  basis  of  this  experience  a  whole  national  and  political 
life  was  to  be  evolved  in  which  there  was  to  be  no  room  for  the 
Egyptian  worship  of  nature  and  man,  no  room  for  a  denial  of  God 
and  a  human  tyranny  so  characteristic  of  Egypt. 

On  the  basis  of  this  experience  a  national  and  political  life  was 
to  be  built  up  in  which  science  and  art,  industry  and  commerce, 
force  and  power,  were  not  to  blind  man's  eyes,  so  that  he 
should  no  longer  see  the  one  and  only  God,  or  imprison  his  heart 
in  an  iron  casement,  that  it  should  no  longer  feel  its  own  divine 
dignity  or  be  sensible  of  the  influence  of  the  guardian  angels  of 
mankind,  the  teachings  of  truth  and  justice,  morality  and  love. 

On  the  basis  of  this  experience  a  national  and  political  life  was 
to  be  evolved  in  which  the  sun  of  God's  greatness  need  not 
set  in  order  that  the  stars  of  human  greatness  might  shine  ; 
in  which  science  and  art,  industry  and  commerce,  force  and  power 
should  not  erect,  for  self  adoration,  the  golden-iron-clay  idol  of 
glorified  human  grandeur,  and  in  which  the  worship  of  the  Creator 
should  not  pale  before  the  self-worship  of  the  creature. 

On  the  ccntary  on  the  basis  of  this  experience  a  national  and 
political  life  was  rather  to  be  evolved,  in  which  man's  smallest  and 
greatest  activities  were  to  be  developed  in  contact  with  God,  in  which 


31 

science  and  art,  industry  and  commerce,  agriculture  and  state- 
craft, IN  SHORT,  ALL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  POWER  AND 
GREATNESS  WERE  TO  JOIN  FORCES  SOLELY  FOR  THE  GLORI- 
FICATION OF  THE  ONE  AND  ONLY  GOD  ;  in  which  sacrifices 
were  to  be  made  to  God  and  His  precepts  fulfilled  in  the 
palace  of  the  ruler,  in  the  hut  of  the  peasant,  in  the  study  of  the  scho- 
lar, in  the  laboratory  of  the  scientist  ;  in  which  every  moment 
of  the  day,  whether  with  the  plough  or  the  needle,  the  sword  or  the 
anvil,  the  pen  or  the  spade  at  all  times,  at  every,  hour,  with  every 
thought  and  feeling,  with  every  word  and  action  private  and  public 
life—  the  service  of  the  one  and  only  God  was  to  be  performed  AND 

THE  INDIVIDUAL  AND  THE  NATION,  THE  HOME  AND  THE  STATE 
WERE  TO  FIND  THEIR  OWN  GLORIFICATION  SOLELY  IN  THE  GLORI- 
FICATION OF  THE  ONE  AND  ONLY  GOD ! 

'33K,  f<  I,"  God,  had  therefore  said  to  Israel,  I,  whom  you  know 
from  Egypt,  from  the  home  of  slavery,  you  know  in  what  manner 
I  am  God,  God  in  nature,  God  in  social  life.  I  SHALL  BE  YOUR 
GOD,  to  Me  you  shall  dedicate  yourselves  and  Me  you  shall  serve 
in  all  your  relations,  with  all  your  powers,  efforts  and  aims.  You 
shall  erect  no  idols  beside  Me,  whether  in  private  or  public  life, 
build  no  altars  to  them  or  devote  your  strength  to  them.  For  I  God, 
YOUR  God  claim  the  WHOLE  man,  the  whole  life  of  the  family,  the 
nation  and  the  state.  The  smallest  thing  which  man,  nation  or  state 
withholds  from  My  services  affects  their  happiness,  and  that  of 
their  children  and  children's  children.  When,  however,  the 
surrender  to  My  will  shall  be  complete,  and  the  fulfilment 
of  My  commandments  perfect,  then  I  lay  the  foundation 
of  the  happiness  of  all  mankind  to  the  thousandth  gen- 
eration. Hence,  you  .  should  not  lightly  esteem  the  simplest 
word  you  utter,  for  I  do  not  lightly  esteem  even  the  smallest  thing  ; 
I  am  near  to  the  simplest  word,  the  least  shaped  thought  of  the 
most  insignificant  and  forsaken  of  men.  I  am  in  the  centre  of  all 
human  intercourse,  and  am  witness  of  and  surety  to  men's 
truthfulness,  I  make  heaven  and  earth  the  executors  of  man's  least 
and  most  transient  utterance's.  Wherever  My  name  is  mentioned 
there  I  am,  and  who  so  mentions  My  name  for  deception,  for  false- 
hood, for  levity  shall  never  remain  free. 

p^  n3B>n  DV  DK  IIO »  TOT !     Therefore  take  heed  that  your 


32 

political  and  economic  life  does  not  banish  God  from  your  heart,  that 
you  do  not  come  to  imagine  that  God  sends  manna  for  every  soul 
whether  young  or  old,  only  in  the  wilderness,  but  in  your  organised 
social  life,  you  alone,  with  your  intellect,  your  strength,  your 
mastery  of  life,  are  the  provider  of  manna.  IN  THE  MIDST  OF 

THE  BUSIEST,  THE  MOST  WONDERFUL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HUMAN 
HISTORY  ^AND  EFFORT,  "  REMEMBER  THE  SABBATH  DAY  TO  KEEP 

IT  HOLY"  and  make  the  Sabbath  AN  ETERNAL  MONUMENT  OF 
THE  KNOWLEDGE  AND  SANCTIFICATION  OF  GOD,  both  in  the  centre 
of  your  busy  public  life  and  the  peaceful  retreat  of  your  domestic 
hearth. 

For  six  days  work  the  earth  and  rule  it  !  For  six  days  labour 
and  do  your  work,  your  "  Melachah,"  master  and  mould  and  shape 
the  things  of  the  earth  for  your  ends,  impress  upon  them  the  stamp 
of  your  intellect,  of  your  will,  and  make  them  "  Melachthecha,'* 
servants,  and  messengers  and  executors  of  your  will  !  For  six  days. 
till  and  plough,  sow  and  plant,  reap  and  gather,  thresh  and  grind, 
bake  and  cook.  For  six  days  cut  and  spin,  wash  and  bleach,  weave 
and  sew.  For  six  days  hunt  and  kill,  tan  and  shear.  For  six  days 
write  and  draw,  paint  and  sketch.  For  six  days  wield  the  hammer 
and  chisel,  and  practise  every  art  and  craft.  For  six  days  administer 
the  affairs  of  state,the  relations  of  the  community  to  the  individual , 
of  the  individual  to  the  community  and  promote  their 
mutual  purposes.  For  six  days  carry  from  the  sphere  of 
the  individual  to  that  of  the  community,  from  the  sphere 
of  the  community  to  that  of  the  individual,  and  extend  the 
welfare  of  the  community,  in  its  corporate  capacity.  But 
the  seventh  is  THE  SABBATH  OF  THE  LORD  THY  GOD.  On  the 
seventh  do  no  manner  of  work  !  On  the  seventh  day  let 
the  husbandman  quit  his  plough,  the  reaper  his  scythe,  the 
miller  his  mill,  the  baker  his  oven,  the  spinner  his  spindle,  the 
weaver  his  spool,  the  hunter  his  net,  the  tanner  his  pit,  the  furnace- 
man  his  fire,  the  sculptor  his  chisel,  the  trader  his  business,  and  let 
every  one  remember  HIM  WHO  has  given  him  this  world,  from 
WHOM  he  derives  the  intellect  and  strength,  the  insight  and  skill, 
to  master  it  ;  WHO  has  formed  the  materials,  created  the  forces,, 
laid  down  the  laws  which  human  intellect  turns  to  account  to  its 
own  use  Let  him  remember,  HIM  in  WHOSE  service  he  is  working 


33 

and  producing,  under  WHOSE  eye  he  is  dealing  and  trading,  and 
WHOSE  purposes  he  must  seek  to  further.  Let  him  remember, 
moreover,  on  WHOSE  goodwill  and  help  and  blessing,  the  well- 
being  of  the  community  and  of  the  individual,  of  the  prince  and  of  the 
peasant  in  the  last  resort  depends.  And  let  him  lay  his  productions 
and  materials,  his  world  and  himself  as  holy  sacrifices  on  the  altar  of 
HIM  who  created  heaven  and  earth,  and  who  rested  on  the  seventh 
day  and  blessed  and  sanctified  it.  And  finally  let  him  therefore 
realise  THAT  THE  CREATOR  OF  OLD  is  THE  LIVING  GOD  OF  TO- 
DAY, who  watches  every  man  and  every  human  effort,  to  see  how 
man  uses  or  abuses  the  world  lent  to  him  and  the  forces  bestowed 
upon  him,  AND  THAT  HE  is  THE  SOLE  ARCHITECT  TO  WHOM 

EVERY  MAN  HAS  TO  RENDER  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  HIS  DOINGS  OF  THE 
WEEK. 

Thus  it  has  been  for  thousands  of  years — and  can  we  in  our  time 
dispense  with  the  Sabbath  ?  OUR  TIME  in  which  the  spirit  of 
invention  and  art  has  exalted  imman  greatness  to  an  unimagined 
height  ;  in  which  the  clouds  have  become  our  steeds,  the  lightning 
our  messengers,  and  the  sunbeams  colours,  and  pencils^  for  our 
painters  ?  OUR  TIME  which  is  getting  nearer  and  nearer,  not  only  to 
the  secrets  of  heaven,  but  what  is  still  more,  to  the  secrets  of  the 
earth  and  life  ;  which  is  beginning  to  discover  the  laws  of  nature 
and  to  find  the  magic  [••mula  which  her  forces  obey,  and  Tl^  in 
which  every  newly  discovered  marval  of  nature  is  utilised,  not  as  is 
said,  for  aimless  scientific  amusements,  but  for  immediately  practical 
purposes,  for  the  increase  of  man's  wealth  and  pleasure  ;  OUR 
TIME  in  which  the  conquest  of  nature  by  man's  INDUSTRY  is 
revered  as  the  only  saving  God  whose  altars  never  lack  for  wor- 
shippers— OUR  TIME  INDEED  CAN  IT  DISPENSE  WITH  THE  SABBATH? 

HAD  THE  SABBATH  NOT  BEEN  GIVEN  TO  US  LONG  SINCE  BY 
OUR  MERCIFUL  FATHER  IN  HEAVEN,  WE  SHOULD  HAVE  TO 
IMPLORE  HIM  FOR  IT  ON  OUR  BENDED  KNEES,  SO  that  it  might 

save  us  from  ourselves,  save  us  and  our  children,  from  self -deifi- 
cation and  the  denial  of  God,  the  danger  of  which  has  never  been 
greater  than  in  our  days. 

If  the  Sabbath  were  a  recognised  institution,  every  newly 
discovered  marvel  of  nature  would  only  increase  our  reverence  for 
the  great  Master,  who  is  the  Author  of  it,  who  ha«  ro»jceived  the 


34 

ideas,  and  calculated  and  determined  the  laws  which  we  discover, 
investigate  and  fathom,  and  our  gratitude  towards  HIM  would  be 
still  further  kindled  for  having  vouchsafed  us  a  spark  of  His  spirit 
and  a  portion  of  His  creative  energy  whereby  we  are  able  to  follow 
Him,  in  the  operation  of  His  mind  and  will. 

If  the  Sabbath  were  a  recognised  institution,  the  deeper  our 
insight,  the  more  ingenious  our  inventions,  the  more  extensive 
our  discoveries,  the  more  modest  would  we  become,  and  the  more 
reverently  would  we  walk  across  the  stage  of  nature  and  of  human 
activity  which,  with  ever-growing  splendour,  reveals  God's  creative 
wisdom ;  the  more  holy  would  we  consider  every  little  speck  of  dust 
which  we  gratefully  use  in  God's  great  household,  the  more  holy 
would  we  ourselves  become,  as  well  as  every  human  being  toiling 
along  and  near  us  ;  the  more  holy  would  every  faculty  of  our  in- 
tellect, mind  and  body  which  has  been  called  by  God  to  such  high 
authority  in  His  kingdom  become,  and  the  more  would  we  at  all  times 
endeavour  to  use  everything,  the  smallest  as  well  as  the  greatest  for 
the  purpose  only  of  our  salvation,  that  under  God's  protection  and 
blessing  it  may  be  made  to  contribute  to  His  great  scheme  of  sal- 
vation for  the  whole  of  mankind.  Our  God-like  UNDERSTANDING 
would  even  be  surpassed  by  our  God-like  COMPASSION,  and  every  new 
discovery,  every  new  invention  would  not  only  add  to  our  wealth 
and  pleasure,  but  be  a  source  of  ever  new  BLESSING  and  SALVATION. 

Who  can  fathom  the  full  grandeur  and  blessing  of  a  Sabbath  in 
our  time  ?  Would  that  on  every  seventh  day  civilized  man  would 
descend  from  his  throne  of  cloud  and  lightning,  and  in  meek  devotion 
place  himself  and  the  world  he  rules  at  the  feet  of  Him  before  whose 
creative  grandeur  all  human,  art  pales  like  a  vision  and  compared 
with  whose  radiant  crown  his  own  lustre  is  but  like  a  single  pearl  of 
glory.  \Vould  that  with  ever  increasing  devoutness  civilized  man 
would  embrace  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  a  world  that  is  being 
constantly  rejuvenated  by  the  spirit  of  Sabbath  ;  and  that  there 
would  be  but  ONE  AIM,  namely  to  use  his  power  a  thousand 
times  multiplied  and  his  insight  a  thousand  times  quickened, 
SOLELY  IN  THE  SERVICE  OF  TRUTH  AND  JUSTICE,  HOLINESS  AND 
LOVE. 

Sabbath  in  our  time  !    To  cease  for  a  whole  dayyfrom  all 
business,  from  all  work  in  the  frenzied  hurry-scurry  of  our  time  ! 


35 

To  close  the,  exchanges,  the  workshops  and  factories,  to  stop  all 
railway  services  —  great  heavens  !  how  would  it  be  possible?  The 
pulse  of  life  would  stop  beating  and  the  world  perish  !" 

The  world  perish  ?  On  the  contrary,  it  would  be  saved,  p  by 
1PW  1,^1  narn  DV  n«  'I  70  !  The  GOD  who  sanctified  the  Sabbath, 
He  has  BLESSED  IT  TOO  !  |03  13"D1  |03  lanp,  He  who  withholds 
the  manna  on  the  Sabbath  day,  knows  how  to  bless  the  work  of 
the  week  with  a  twofold  measure  of  manna,  and  if  only  you 
would  reverently  lay  at  His  feet  on  the  Sabbathi  the  sacrifice  of 
your  labour,  He  would  bless  its  fruits  with  the  fulness  of  peace 
and  joy,  of  salvation  and  blessing. 


Therefore  im:3t  /no^aa  pn  by  ima?  !  wiph  naw/w  n«  -o, 

pn  by,  the  more  you  see  how  labour  in  your  time 
swallows  up  every  circumstance,  every  human  concern,  the  more  you 
yourself  feel  the  pressure  of  the  industrial  current,  the  more  you  must 
tremble  at  the  thought  that  you  and  your  child  may  finally  be  com- 
pletely submerged  in  it,  and  that  you  may  lose  in  it  your  God  and 
the  whole  dignity  of  your  calling  as  a  man.  The  more  significant  the 
industrial  factor  becomes  to  you,  the  more  precious,  as  you  say, 
becomes  your  time.  The  more  your  profit  or  loss  depends  on  days, 
hours  and  minutes,  the  stronger  becomes  the  industrial  fetter. 
The  greater  the  Sabbath-sacrifice  the  more  zealously  must 
you  grasp  the  CUP  of  the  Sabbath-sanctification,  and  the 
more  devoutly  must  you  gather  IDDKl  "pay  ~[r\3)  "p3,  wife  and 
child  and  all  the  members  of  your  household  around  you  and 
hallow  the  Sabbath,  extolling  it  and  returning  fervent  thanks  for 
its  saving  and  sanctifying  gift.  You  must  teach  them  through 
your  self-sacrificing  example  that  not  only  in  the  desert  was 
the  dew-covered  granule  of  manna  a  message  of  God, 
not  only  in  the  desert  did  every  dwelling  and  every  soul 
depend  on  God's  mercy,  not  only  in  the  desert  did  God  know  how 
to  compensate  for  the  keeping  of  the  Sabbath  by  a  two-fold  blessing 
of  the  week,  but  that  even  in  the  midst  of  the  city's  boisterous 
traffic  it  is  only  God's  mercy  that  protects  your  dwellings  and  sustains 
its  inhabitants,  it  is  only  God's  mercy  that  knows  and  numbers  every 
soul,  old  and  young  under  your  roof.  It  is  not  your  strength,  not 
your  cleverness,  not  your  assiduous  industry,  but  only  God's  blessing 
which  is  assured  to  everyone  who  surrenders  himself  to  Him  ir 


36 

faithfulness,  He  feeds  you  and  your  family,  and  to  yon  too, 
the  Sabbath  will  mean  not  a  loss,  but  the  provision  of  A  DOUBLE 

MEASURE  OF  BREAD,  AND  YOU  WILL  BE  THE  MORE  BLESSED, 
THE  MORE  JOYOUSLY  AND  CONSCIENTIOUSLY  YOU  KEEP  THE  SABBATH. 

Gather  your  wife  and  child  and  all  the  members  of  your  household 
around  you,  and  teach  them  by  the  solemnity  of  your  Sabbath- 
celebration  that  not  your  industry,  your  trade,  ci  your  profession 
is  your  god  and  the  centre  of  your  life,  but  that  God  is  still  your 
Lord  even  now,  the  God  who  not  only  created  the  world,  but 
Who  rules  it  with  omnipotence,  and  governs  it  with  blessing, 
and  Who,  from  the  time  of  Egypt  downward,  has  taught  you  to 
realise  His  almighty  power  and  His  blessed  and  sheltering 
providence,  that  He  may  remain  your  and  your  children's  God  for 
ever  and  \fc  ever. 

Just  as  you  greet  the  Sabbath  on  its  entry  and  usher  it  in 
in  sanctity  into  your  domestic  hearth  with  the  cup  of  "  thinking  " 
and  "remembering" — TOt — ,  so  when  the  Sabbath  departs  you , 
gather  wife  and  child  and  the  members  of  your  household  around 
you,  and  before  you  once  more  make  use  of  "Fire,"  the  symbol 
of  man's  conquest  over  nature,  you  raise  the  cup  again  with  the 
same  joyousness  as  when  you  received  it,  manifesting  your  desire, 
as  you  bow  the  Sabbath  out,  to  "  preserve  "  and  retain  TlOtP, 
the  sanctifying  influence  which  it  has  brought  you  ;  not  to  let  it 
vanish  indeed  with  the  departure  of  the  Sabbath,  but  to  take  it 
with  you  into  your  week-day  life  ;  and  gladly  do  you  refer  to  the 
evidence  which  it  gives  of  your  having  fulfilled  your  Sabbath 
celebration  :  Tljttt^  b»  run,  You  thus  testify  that  GOD  is  to  you 
the  God  of  your  salvation  ;  you  testify  this  by  the  assurance 
and  the  repose  and  trustful  faith  with  which  you  once 
again  enter  upon  the  week  ;  you  have  gained  two- 
fold what  you  may  have  lost  in  material  traffic,  and  you 
call  upon  your  household  to  drink  joy  and  gladness  out 
of  THESE  springs  of  salvation  !  God  is  your  strength,  He 
makes  you  joyous  and  glad,  He  has  hitherto  helped  you,  He  will 
give  you  and  all  who  belong  to  you  His  blessing  in  the  future,  too. 
Joy  and  gladness,  brightness  and  honour  WERE  the  Jewish  heritage. 
THEY  WILL  BE  so  AND  REMAIN  so.  Therefore,  you  "  raise  on 
high  the  cup  of  salvation  "  and  consecrate  yourself  to  God,  who 


37 


mixes  the  cup  of  your  destiny,  and  you  brace  yourself  to  take  with 
you  the  "  fragrant  spice  of  recreation,"  which  the  Sabbath  has 
brought  you,  into  your  working  and  producing  days.  You  brace 
yourself  to  display  your  activity  in  God's  world,  whose  symbol 
you  hold  up  to  view  in  the  "  fire,"  in  the  spirit  of  Him  who  has 
ordained  this  activity,  and  has  given  you  the  power  to  assert  this 
authority.  For  He  who  has  separated  the  holy  from  the  uncon- 
secrated,  the  light  from  darkness,  Israel  from  the  rest  of  mankind, 
has  also  separated  the  Sabbath  from  the  six  working  days,  in  order 
that  by  its  means  "  holiness  and  light  "  and  the  "  Jewish  spirit  " 
may  be  preserved  and  secured  for  your  productive  work  on  earth. 


THE  SABBATH  AND  THE  TEMPLE. 


"  Only  keep  My  Sabbaths  !  "—Ex.  31,  15. 

When  the  prophet  Isaiah  was  consecrated  to  his  high  calling 
as  God's  messenger,  and  his  eyes  were  opened  so  that  he  was  able 
clearly  to  realise  the  condition  of  his  people,  he  heard  the  angels' 
choir  praising  God  with  the  exclamation  :  that  though  holy, 
holy,  holy  was  the  Lord  of  hosts,  yet  the  whole  earth  was  full 
of  His  glory  :  and  before  this  exclamation  the  pillars  of  the 
temple  trembled  and  the  halls  of  the  sanctuary  were  filled  with 
smoke. 

The  little  word  "-|X/(  aonly"  with  which  God  in  the  beginning 
secured  the  holiness  of  the  Sabbath  whilst  building  THE  Temple, 
has  grown  in  our  time  into  a  word  of  thunder  that  causes  the 
very  pillars  of  our  temples  to  shake. 

Build  me  a  Temple  and  I  will  dwell  among  you,  God  had  said  : 
take  gold  and  silver  and  copper,  azure  and  purple,  crimson  and 
byssus,  cedar-wood,  oil  and  spices  and  precious  stones,  and  make 
the  ark  and  the  table,  the  lamp,  and  the  altars,  make  golden 
hangings  and  stretch  over  them  carpets  with  cherubim  —  /,"|K" 
ONLY  KEEP  MY  SABBATH  ;  FOR  THAT  is  THE  SIGN  BETWEEN  ME  AND 

YOU  THROUGHOUT  ALL  YOUR  GENERATIONS  THAT  YOU  MAY  KNOW 
THAT  I,  GOD,  MAKE  YOU  HOLY. 


38 

Temple  and  altar,  table  and  lamp,  incense  and  sacrifice 
all  these  are  meaningless,  if,  outside  the  Temple,  you  desecrate  the 
Sabbath  !  To  VISIT  THE  TEMPLE,  TO  SING  SONGS  OF  HALLELUIAH 

IS  BLASPHEMY,  IF  WORSHIPPERS  AND  SINGERS  DO  NOT  KEEP  THE 
SABBATH. 

For  temples  and  altars  are  not  the  signs  of  recognition  between 
God  and  Israel,  temples  and  altars  are  not  the  sanctuary  which  has 
been  committed  to  every  Jew,  temples  and  altars  are  not  the  ever- 
lasting covenant  ;  by  the  SABBATH  God  wishes  to  test  you 
whether  you  are  His  or  not  ;  D^yb  KM  niK  Sritf'  ^  pi  T3, 
between  God  and  Israel  it  is  the  everlasting  sign,  C^b  N'n  BTlp  "O, 
the  Sabbath  is  the  sanctuary  of  every  Jew  DK  niPj;^ 
tibiy  ma  DrnTH1?  rOPn,  the  SABBATH  is  the  covenant  to  be 
preserved  throughout  all  generations. 

PROVE,  FIRST  OF  ALL,  BY  THE  SABBATH,  THAT  GOD  IS  TO  YOU 
A  GOD  OF  LIFE,  THAT  YOU  COMMIT  TO  HIM  YOUR  HOME,  your  family, 

your  business,  your  strength,  youi  aspirations,  your  fortune,  your 
sustenance,  your  happiness,  that  you  are  ready  to  devote  your 
life  to  Him,  to  sacrifice  it  for  His  sake,  THEN  BUILD  HIM  TEMPLES, 
for  then  the  Temple  \\il)  be  helpful  to  you  in  your  pursuit  of  3  our 
holy  ideals  ;  it  ovill  help  you  to  effect  the  atonement,  the 
sanctification,  the  glorification  of  your  whole  life.  You  will  then 
find  God  in  the  Temple,  because  you  seek  Him  there  as  He  wishes 
to  be  sought.  Do  not  seek  Him  merely  for  the  fleeting  moment  of 
swift  speedir.g  devctkn,  or  for  the  brightly  decked  hours  of  ritual 
service,  but  seek  Him  fcj  the  full  round  of  your  time,  as  master  of 
your  thoughts,  ccntiollei  of  your  feelings,  guide  of  your  actions, 
owner  of  youi  possessions,  and  director  of  your  pleasures;  seek  Him 
in  your  home,  at  youi  business,  in  your  education,  in  your  joys. 

|^    But  if  you  desecrate  the  Sabbath  in  your  life,  IF  YOU  so  LITTLE 

WORSHIP  GOD,  YOUR  ONLY  SUPPORT,  THAT  YOU  HAVE  NOT  THE 
COURAGE  EVEN  TO  TRUST  HIM  FOR  ONE  DAY  IN  THE  WEEK,  if  yOU 

care  so  little  about  your  divine  uplifting  which  the  temple  is  to  se- 
cure for  you,  that  when  you  take  a  single  step  outside  the  temple 
you  can  be  induced,  not  only  by  the  hope  of  profit, whether  great  or 
small,  but  even  by  the  slightest  attraction,  themost  insignificant  prac- 
tice, the  least  and  most  transient  pleasure,  jest,  or  pastime,  to  trample 


39 

under  foot,  frivolously  and  publicly,  the  sign  which  God  has  es- 
tablished as  a  token  between  you  and  Him  ;  if  the  bond  which  the 
Temple  is  to  rivet,  is  such  a  feeble  thread  that  it  snaps  outside  its 
very  threshold,  and  if  in  the  mode  of  your  life  you  wilfully  destroy 
your  covenant  with  God  and  blasphemously  throw  into  His  face  the 
tattered  fragments  of  His  compact,  THEN  DO  NOT  CALL  UNTO  GOD 

BY    NAME    AND     DO     NOT    BUILD    TLMPLES    UNTO    HIM.        For    YOUR 

GOD  is  a  dead  idol.  The  living  Jewish  God  who  made  the  cov- 
enant of  the  spirit  with  you  for  life,  is  not  this  God  ;  the  temple, 
in  \v!rch  you  seek  to  drug  your  dead  -God  wits  the  opiate  of 
incense  lest  He  arise  and  angrily  destroy  the  life  that  is  withheld 
from  him,  is  a  prison. 

You  cannot  erase  these  words  from  God's  book  : — 

"  ONLY  keep  My  Sabbath  for  it  is  the  sign  between  Me  and 
you,  throughout  your  generations,  that  you  may  know  that  I  God, 
do  sanctify  you.  Keep  the  Sabbath,  for  it  is  your  sanctuary.  He 
who  denies  it,  deserves  death.  Foi*  he  who  does  any  work  on  the 
Sabbath,  his  soul  shall  be  cut  off  from  among  his  people.  On  six 
days  shall  work  be  done,  but  on  the  seventh  is  the  Sabbath,  God's 
sanctuary,  to  be  celebrated  by  abstaining  from  work,  he  who  does 
work  on  the  Sabbath  has  deserved  death  !  The  children  of  Israel 
shall  keep  the  Sabbath  as  a  PERPETUAL  COVENANT  throughout 
all  their  generations.  Between  Me  and  the  children  of  Israel  it  is 
a  PERPETUAL  SIGN  that  in  six  days  God  created  heaven  and 
earth  and  only  on  the  seventh  day  ceased  to  create  and  retired 
unto  Himself."— (Ex.  31,  13-17.) 

All  our  levity  and  all  our  false  teaching  cannot  blot  out  or 
explain  away  these  divine  declarations. 

The  Sabbath  remains  the  hall-mark  of  the  Jew,  his  sanctuary 
and  covenant.  And  the  Jew  who  desecrates  the  Sabbath  rejects  the 
sign,  denies  the  sanctuary,  destroys  the  covenant. 

You  may  build  temples,  "  BUT  keep  my  Sabbaths,  for  the 
Sabbath  alone  is  the  sign,  by  which  you  may  know  that  I,  God,  do 
sanctify  you  !  "  "  It  is  a  perpetual  sign  that  God  created  heaven 
and  earth." 

You  may  wish  to  glorify  God  by    the    temples   whichjjyou 


40 

build,  but  only  by  the  Sabbath  can  you  testify  that  God  sanctifies 
you. 

The  name  of  God  is  used  by  men  in  many  languages  and  in 
many  meanings,  and  every  nation  has  built  temples  to  ITS  god. 
The  name  of  God  which  you  have  in  your  mouth,  and  the  temples 
which  you  build,  mean  nothing  in  themselves.  It  is  only  by  the 
Sabbath  that  you  can  demonstrate  that  your  God,  to  whom  you 
build  your  temples,  is  the  one  and  only  God,  who  created  heaven 
and  earth  and  only  then  sealed  and  crowned  his  work  of  creation 
when  with  the  seventh  day  He  had  established  this  monument  of 
the  absolute  holiness  of  His  relations  with  mankind.  It  is  not  He, 
therefore,  who  wants  the  temple,  but  You  who  want  it.  You, 
in  the  first  place,  have  to  demonstrate  through  the  Sabbath  that 
your  God  is  He  who  spoke  of  Himself  in  these  words  : 

"  Heaven  is  My  throne,  and  the  earth  my  footstool,  where  is 
the  house  that  you  would  build  unto  Me,  and  where  is  the  place  of 
My  rest  ?  My  hand  has  created  the  universe,  when  the  universe 
came  into  existence,  says  God,  and  only  him  will  I  regard  with  love, 
who,  though  poor  and  bruised  in  spirit,  yet  lives  conscientiously 
according  to  My  word." — (Is.  66,  1-3.) 

You  have  to  demonstrate  through  the  Sabbath  that  it  is  your 
God  who  made  His  prophet  say  : — 

"  Trust  ye  not  in  lying  words,  saying  :  '  Temples  of  God, 
God's  temples  !  Man  himself  shall  be  the  temple  of  God  ! '  "  — 
foer.  7,  4) 

In  regard  to  time  and  importance  the  Sabbath  takes  precedence 
of  the  whole  system  of  Jewish  Laws  and  Commandments  ;  nay  it  is 
just  from  the  Sabbath  that  all  Jewish  institutions  derive  their  true 
connection  with  the  pure  idea  of  the  living  God.  From  the  sacredness 
of  the  Sabbath  proceeds  the  sacredness  of  Israel  and  his  festivals, 
arwn  BnpD  D^Cim  tonm.  Abolish  the  Sabbath  and  you  root 
out  the  fundamental  principle  of  Israel  and  his  religion.  Even  the 
seal  of  the  covenant  on  the  flesh  is  not  made  on  the  Jewish  body 
until,  as  our  wise  men  ingeniously  remind  us,  the  first  Sabbath  has 
been  greeted. 

Temples  and  altars  may  even  fall  into  ruin  and  decay,  but  the 


41 

Sabbath  D31?  KYI  Empy  is  a  sanctuary  that  can  never  be  destroyed. 
It  accompanies  the  Jew  always  and  everywhere,  that  he  builds 
ever  anew  every  seventh  day  DSlJ?  JVi3  DnTVPl^  rOPn  DK  mtPJ^. 
It  is  a  perpetual  covenant  that  he  has  to  ratify  ever  anew  every 
seventh  day. 

If  you  keep  the  Sabbath,  you  testify  and  prove  ever  and  anon 
to  your  God  that  you  are  His,  that  you  are  sanctified  through  Him 
and  that  you  sign  anew  as  it  were  the  letter  of  your  covenant  with 
God. 

But  what  is  it,  by  which  the  Sabbath  is  to  be  kept  according 
to  God's  commandment,  or  by  which  it  is  violated,  on  this  point  you 
cannot  be  in  doubt.  The  consecration  or  the  desecration  of  the 
Sabbath  must  be  something  visible.  For  your  God  calls  it  a 
"  sign,"  a  "  means  of  recognition  "  "KT.  nw«  "Hjn'v 

Whether  you  have  preached  or  not,  listened  to  the  sermon  or 
missed  it,  prayed  or  Ijfeft  your  prayers*  unsaid.you  have  neither 
consecrated  or  desecrated  the  Sabbath  by  these  acts  or  omissions. 
4<  Sabbath  Sabbathon  "  says  your  God  !  There  must  be  rest  from 
work  on  the  Sabbath,  therefore  resting  from  work  means  keeping 
the  Sabbath,  doing  work  means  desecrating  it.  The  Law  does  not 
say  that  he  who  does  not  attend  to  the  sermon  or  say  his  prayers, 
or  sing  on  the  Sabbath,  has  transgressed  it  ;  but  it  says,  who  so 
works  on  the  Sabbath  forfeits  his  life. 

"  Issur  m'lachlah " — ABSTINENCE  FROM  WORK,  this  is 
the  sign  which  your  God  expects  from  you  on  every  Sabbath, 
abstinence  from  work  is  the  sign,  by  which  He  seeks  to  prove  you 
whether  you  still  call  yourself  His. 

Abstinence  from  work  is  the  sign  by  which  you  are  to  demon- 
strate that  God  is  the  Creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  that  He  is  also 
your  Creator  and  that  you  too,  belong  to  Him,  that  all  your  powers 
are  His,  belong  to  His  service,  are  consecrated  to  Him,  are  holy 

umo  Him  Datnpa  'n  ^N  "D  nyfo. 

For  six  days  the  world  belongs  to  you,  for  six  days  you  may 
exercise  your  dominion  over  everything  that  your  God  has  created, 
and  perform  "  M'lachah  "  ;  you  may  stamp  your  creative  impress 
on  everything  and  make  it  the  agent  of  your  will,  the  executor  of 


42 

your  purpose.  But  ON  THE  SEVENTH  DAY  YOU  SHALL  TESTIFY 
THAT,  after  all,  THE  WORLD  is  NOT  YOURS,  that  you  are  not  its  lord 
and  master,  but  merely  God's  vassal  on  earth,  that  you  only  live 
and  work  by  God's  grace,  that  He 'is  YOUR  Lord  and  Master,  the 
Lord  and  Master  of  the  smallest  as  of  the  greatest  creature  within 
your  ken.  To  this  you  shall  testify  by  giving  the  world  its  freedom 
on  this  day,  by  retiring  into  that  sphere  of  creation  which  is 
subject  to  you  and  by  not  exerting  your  powers  on  any  work  of  God 
to  bend  it  to  your  purpose. 

By  Issur  m'lachah,  by  abstinence  from  work  on  the  Sabbath 
you  place  yourself  and  your  work  reverently  on  God's  holy  altar. 

By  Issur  m'lachah  you  make  the  twenty-four  hours  on  the 
Sabbath  a  continual  sacrifice  of  the  world  unto  your  God  and  a 
consecration  of  yourself. 

The  bird,  the  fish,  the  animal  that  you  refrain  from  seizing 
on  the  Sabbath,  the  plant  tliat  you  refrain  from  tearing  up,  the 
material  that  you  refrain  from  fashioning  or  chiselling,  or  cutting 
or  mixing,  or  moulding,  or  preparing,  all  these  facts  are  just  so 
many  expressions  of  homage  to  your  God,  proclaiming  HIM  Creator 
and  Master  and  Lord  of  the  world  ;  and  the  Jewish  child  which  re- 
frains from  catching  the  butterfly,  or  plucking  the  blossom  on  the 
Sabbath  has  glorified  the  Almighty  God  more  effectively  than  the 
most  brilliant  orators  and  poets  glorify  Him  by  their  words  and  songs . 

Every  idea  and  every  faculty  which  stimulates  thought  held 
in  check  on  the  Sabbath  in  God's  world,  so  as  not  to  make  the 
smallest  creature,  the  tiniest  fibre  of  material  into  a  servant  of  the 
least  of  your  purposes,  every  idea  and  every  faculty  which  stimu- 
lates\hought  held  in  check  on  the  Sabbath,  so  as  nowhere  in  God's 
world  to  stamp  and  impress  of  your  human  authority,  are  just  so 
many  tokens  of  the  consecration  and  hallowing  of  your  thinking 
and  creative  life  in  the  service  of  God,  so  many  renewed  tokens 
of  your  wish  to  fulfil  your  covenant  with  your  God— and  the  Jew 
whom  neither  the  desire  of  pleasure  nor  the  hope  of  profit,  neither 
the  love  of  comfort  nor  frivolity  can  tempt  to  engage  in  productive 
activity  on  the  Sabbath  has,  by  this  self-restraint  and  by  the  con- 
secration of  his  thoughts  and  forces  to  the  service  of  God,  sanctified 
and  elevated  himself  more  truly  and  lastingly,  than  if  he  had  shed 


43 

most  devoutly  tears  in  the  temple  before  God  and  then  hurried  to 
his  business. 

And  not  only  in  respect  to  nature  does  God  require  on  the 
Sabbath  these  tokens  of  the  subjection  and  consecration  of  your 
thoughts  and  faculties  to  His  service.  God  is  God  also  of  history, 
a  God  of  human  society.  The  conditions  of  society,  the  relations 
of  the  individual  to  the  community,  and  of  the  community  to  the 
individual,  and  above  all  the  political  conditions  and  activities 
of  men  are  His  concern  too.  It  is  just  in  these  relations  of  life  that 
God  seeks  to  be  glorified  ;  they  must,  therefore,  be  so  ordered 
as  to  win  His  favour,  that  His  kingdom  and  His  glory  may  once 
more  enter  into  the  sphere  of  human  life.  Hence  also  for  the  sake 
of  these  relations  which  you  hold  to  society,  you  must  perpetually 
prove  ever  anew,  on  the  Sabbath,  the  subordination  and  consecra- 
tion of  your  creative  ideas  and  faculties  to  the  service  of  God,  and 
for  this  consecration  to  God  also  of  your  thinking  and  creative  life 
in  the  social  sphere,  God  has  instituted  a  sign  between 

you  and  Him.  nimo  nwsn  ,D'3in  man^  Trrn  mano  nsnrr 
,D^nn  niena  men  jmx  ^ote  ,Trrn  rntr6  o^in  these  are  the 

symbols  of  recognition  which  your  God  has  instituted  for  the 
sanctification  and  glorification  of  your  activity  in  your  relations 
to  human  society  on  the  Sabbath. 

BY  CARRYING  NOTHING  ON  THE  SABBATH  FROM  A  PRIVATE 
AREA  INTO  THE  PUBLIC  AREA  AND  VICE  VERSA,  AND  BY  CARRYING 
NOTHING  FOUR  YARDS  OUTSIDE  THE  PUBLIC  AREA,  YOU  AFFIRM 
THAT  THE  FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  SOCIAL  ORDER  ARE 

LIKEWISE  ORDAINED  BY  GOD.  Neither  an  arbitrary  will  nor  necess- 
ity is  to  appear  to  you  as  the  originator  of  the  human  state,  as  the 
the  factor  which  led  man  to  man  and  founded  society  where  the 
individual  can  find  his  salvation  only  in  co-operation  with  the  many, 
and  the  salvation  of  the  individual  is  made  the  goal  of  the  corporate 
activity.  GOD  associates  you  with  the  state,  He  indicates  society  as 
the  foundation  on  which  alone  you  can  attain  to  the  fulfilment  of 
our  human  destiny,  in  which  alone  you  can  accomplish  the  task 
which  He,  your  Creator  and  Lord  and  Master,  has  committed  to 
you.  "V our  relations  to  society  and  the  relations  of  society  to  you, 
the  relation  further- more,  of  Society  to  itself,  are  equally  holy  before 
God.  Ihey  are  as  much  the  scene  cf  divine  governance  and 


44 

providence  as  the  entire  realm  of  nature.  It,  therefore,  God  is  to 
recognise  you  as  His,  you  must  subordinate  to  Him  on  the  Sabbath, 
the  thoughts  and  faculties  which  operate  also  in  your  social  life,  you 
must  consecrate  and  dedicate  them  to  God,  to  the  service  of  His 
kingdom  on  earth,  so  that  in  your  social  relations  you  refrain  from 
violence  and  lavi  lessness,  hatred  and  injustice,  and  on  the  contrary 
you  endeavour  to  become  a  messenger  of  justice  and  order,  of  loving- 
kindness  and  mercy,  who  with  trustful  devotion  shape  your  relations 
to  society  in  a  manner  so  pleasing  to  God  lhat  the  "  LIBERTY  OF  THE 

INDIVIDUAL  SHALL  NOT  DISTURB  THE  ORDER  OF  THE  COMMUNITY, 
THAT  THE  BOND  OF  THE  COMMUNITY  SHALL  NOT  DESTROY  THE  LIBERTY 

OF  THE  INDIVIDUAL  and  that  in  the  corporate  life,  the  affairs  of  the 
community  shall  be  directed  with  wisdom  and  justice  to  their 
divinely  approved  end  ;  that  TFPn  DIBH  and  D^IH  Dim  and 
O^in  nifcna  "TIB^O  may  be  preserved  and  safeguarded  each 
according  to  its  ordinance. 

And  so  highly  does  God  esteem  this  consecration  of  the 
Sabbath,  of  the  relations  of  society  that  He  caused  it  to  be  set 
forth  by  His  prophet  Jeremiah,  when  the  fall  of  the  Jewish  state  was 
already  impending. 

"  Thus  has  God  spoken  to  me  :  Go  and  station  thyself  in  the 
gates  of  the  people,  by  which  the  kings  of  Judah  come  in  and  by 
which  they  go  out,  and  in  all  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  ;  and  say  to 
them  :  Hear  the  word  of  God,  ye  princes  of  Judah,  and  all  Judah, 
and  all  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  that  enter  by  these  gates  ! 
Thus  God  has  spoken  :  For  the  sake  of  your  own  good  take  heed 
and  carry  nothing  on  the  Sabbath  day  and  bring  nothing  in  by  the 
gates  of  Jerusalem,  and  carry  nothing  out  of  your  houses  on  the 
Sabbath  day.  and  do  not  work,  but  sanctify  the  Sabbath  day,  as  I 
commanded  your  fathers  .  .  .  Then  shall  there  enter  by  the  gates 
of  this  city,  kings  and  princes,  sitting  upon  the  throne  of  David 
riding  in  chariots  and  on  horses,  they  and  their  princes,  the  men 

Judah,  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem,  and  this  city  shall  remain 

undisturbed  for  ever.     And  they  shall  come  from  the  cities  of  Judah 

and  from  the  places  about  Jerusalem,  and  from  the  land  of  Benjamin, 

•om  the  low  land,  and  from  the  mountains,  and  from  the  South, 

tgmg  burnt  offerings  and  meal  offerings  and  incense  and  sacrifice 
of  thanksgiving  unto  the  house  of  God. 


45 

But  if  you  will  not  hearken  unto  Me  to  sanctify  the  Sabbath- 
day  and  to  carry  nothing  in  or  out  by  the  gates  of  Jerusalem  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  then  I  will  kindle  a  fire  in  the  gates  thereof,  and  it 
shall  devour  the  palaces  of  Jerusalem,  and  it  shall  not  be  quenched." 
—(Jer.  17,  19-22,  25-27.) 

Thus  even  IN  THE  HOUR  WHEN  THE  FALL  OF  THE  STATE  OF 
JERUSALEM  WAS  AT  HAND,  GOD  MADE  THE  KEEPING  OF  THE 
SABBATH  AND  PARTICULARLY  THE  HALLOWING  OF  THE  nowm  PJKVin, 

THE  SYMBOL  NAMELY  OF  THE  SUBJECTION  TO  GOD  OF  ALL  THE 
PRIVATE  AND  PUBLIC  AFFAIRS  OF  THE  COMMUNITY  AS  A  CONDITION 
OF  ITS  SALVATION  AND  ITS  UNDISTURBED  PROSPERITY  FOR  ALL 
FUTURE  TIME. 

And  surely  you  are  not  to  believe  that  work  is  forbidden  on  the 
Sabbath,  only  in  regard  to  the  so-called  lower  purpcses  of  business 
or  the  earning  of  a  livelihood,  but  that  it  is  no  desecration  of  the 
Sabbath  to  do  work  for  the  sake  of  pleasure,  or  amusement,  for  the 
cultivation  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  for  the  promotion  of  education 
or  religion.  This  you  are  not  to  believe.  Is  there  a  higher  or  holier 
purpose  to  which  man's  creative  energy  could  have  been  dedicated 
than  the  building  of  the  first  temple  of  God  on  earth  than  the  work 
concerning,  which  God  said  "Build  Me  a  sanctuary  and  I  will  dwell 
among  you  ?  "  Is  there  a  higher  aim  to  which  man  can  aspire  ? 
And  behold  the  building  of  this  sanctuary  em  Codies  all  the 
characteristic  activites  which  man  exercises,  in  his  conquest  of 
nature  as  in  his  social  relations,  from  the  first  cut  of  the  upturned 
sod  to  the  transfer  of  the  finished  work,  which  in  the  constitution 
of  the  Temple,  became  the  symbol  of  Israel's  national  life.  It  was 
in  itself  a  consecration  of  the  collective  activities  of  men — never- 
theless God  placed  the  Sabbath  above  the  building  of  the  temple 
and  said  :  "  ONLY  keep  My  Sabbath,  for  THIS  only  is  the  sign 
of  recognition  that  I,  God,  do  sanctify  you. 

Well,  then,  let  us  prove  ourselves  true  sons  of  Israel,  let  us 
observe  the  Sabbath  as  an  everlasting  covenant  for  our  children  and 
children's  children  ;  let  us,  by  our  celebration  of  the  Sabbath,  bear 
witness  among  our  fellow  men  to  God's  supremacy  in  nature  and 
society.  Then  eveiy  Jew  and  every  Jewess  may  stand  forth  sancti- 
fied by  the  celebration  of  the  Sabbath  and  the  word  of  the  Jewish 
sage  may  be  verified  :  hvTNrb  n»np  n30n»  TJO  Dlh  ton  mp  V, 


46 

the  Sabbath  is  Israel's  sanctification  nSlJtf  inurw  *nh&  HO,  why  is 
this  man's  shop  closed  ?  n:}tfn  HX  1D»0  Kintf,  "  because  he  is  keeping 
the  Sabbath,"  -IOK*  <D  ty  T^D  H3»n  PK  ICtfO*  'D  ^  K^M  11?  »6l 
^JT3P3  nil  PtP2  ID^V  Nl3ff  D^iyn  .TIT),  and  every  one  that  keeps  the 
Sabbath  bears  witness  before  God  to  the  highest  conception  of 
salvation,  who  by  His  word  created  the  world  in  six  days  and 
rested  on'  the  seventh,  for  does  it  not  say  'K  <JK1  '1  DKi  n?  DPiO 
"  You  are  my  witnesses,  says  the  Lord,  and  I  am  God." 


6.—  THE  SABBATH  AND  EDUCATION. 

run  INTD  va«i   IDS   ^« 


"  Le/  ewery  man  honour  and  fear  his  mother  and  father.  — 
and  keep  My  Sabbaths  !"     (Lev    19,  3). 

Among  all  the  forces  with  which  the  blessing  or  curse  of 
humanity  is  bound  up,  there  is  none  more  hidden  and  yet  more 
patent,  none  more  tender  and  yet  more  powerful,  none  nobler 
and  yet  more  generally  accessible  than  the  influence  of  education. 

Even  if  all  the  forces  of  darkness  were  to  unite  to  destroy  the 
human  race,  yet  if  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  new-born  genera- 
tion pledged  themselves  to  save  the  future  by  educating  it,  the 
future  would  be  saved. 

And  if  heaven  and  earth  were  to  combine  finally  to  establish 
on  earth  the  kingdom  of  salvation  and  peace,  of  blessing  and  joy, 
yet  if  fathers  and  mothers  excluded  this  work  of  salvation  from 
their  educational  system,  heaven  and  earth  would  be  unable  to  save 
the  future  of  mankind.  Mankind  would  undoubtedly  be  lost. 

Stronger  than  the  united  strength  of  all  earthly  powers,  more 
powerful  than  the  united  force  of  all  the  experience  of  wise 
men,  is  the  spell  exercised  on  the  child's  mind  by  the  mother's  eye, 
by  the  father's  word,  by  the  teaching  and  example  of  parents  in 
moulding  the  coming  generation. 


47 

NOT    IN    THE    CABINETS    OF    PRINCES,    NOT    IN     THE     FIELD     OF 
BATTLE,    BUT  IN    THE    NURSERIES,   AT    THE  CHILDREN'S   CRADLE,  ON 

THE  MOTHER'S  KNEES  is  THE  FATE  OF  NATIONS  DECIDED. 


"'i  -pi  nean  V-IPIK  lira  nro  vaa  n«  mv  IBM   jyo?  vnjrr  <|3" 

"  I  have  known  him  that  he  will  command  his  children  and  his 
house  after  him  that  they  shall  keep  the  way  of  God  "  said  God 
and  He  entrusted  the  seed  of  salvation  folded  in  the  Abrahamic 
faith,  to  the  overmastering  power  of  education  triumphantly 
preserved  in  the  bosom  of  one  single  family  in  the  face  of  the  an- 
tagonism of  a  whole  erring  world. 


vb  p«3  -|jn?  '\T  1J  O  jnn  JttT,,  Four  hundred  years 
of  sojourning  among  strangers,  slavery,  and  torture,  were  calmly 
imposed  upon  this  family  by  God,  who  trusted  to  the  power  of 
education  to  plant  the  ancestral  faith  with  so  firm  a  root  that  all 
the  terrors  of  tyranny  and  degradation  would  be  powerless  to 
destroy  it. 


1fl  "I  will  scatter  you  among  the  nations"  again 
said  God,  and  once  more  He  trusted  to  the  power  of  education  to 
fasten  the  bonds  of  religious  teaching  and  of  life  with  so  firm  a  rivet, 
that  the  influence  of  the  most  divers  nations  and  countries,  of  the 
most  divers  customs  and  conditions,  of  the  most  divers  times 
and  crises,  the  shock  of  the  most  hostile  attacks,  the  force  of  an 
overwhelming  disintegration  caused  by  the  most  widespread  disper- 
sion, not  only  for  decades,  not  only  for  centuries,  but  for  thousands 
of  years,  would  be  powerless  to  sunder  the  bonds  which  education 
had  forged,  would  be  powerless  to  destroy  the  seed  which  education 
had  sown. 


To  education,  God  entrusted  His  holiest  work  »33^  ~\fcb  Dnjnim 
"  you  shall  bequeath  to  your  children  and  to  your  childrens 
children  that  which  you  learnt  in  Hor^b  "  Om«  W13  HKT  »JW 
'T  1CN  "  and  this  is  My  covenant  with  them,  said  God,  the  spirit 
that  rests  upon  thee,  and  the  words  which  I  have  put  into  thy 
mouth,  shall  not  depart  out  of  thy  mouth,  nor  out  of  thy  children's 
mouths,  said  God,  from  henceforth  and  for  ever  ''—thus  He  spoke, 
and  nowhere  has  education  achieved  more  brilliantly  conspicuous 
triumphs  than  in  Jewish  houses,  on  the  knees  of  Jewish  fathers, 
in  the  bosom  of  Jewish  mothers. 


48 

Kl  T^K  DK  "!32y  therefore,  God  spoke:  "Honour  thy  father 
and  thy  mother!"  1KTTI  V3K1  10K  ff"K  "let  everyone  revere 
his  father  and  mother."  With  these  words  he  fastened  the  bonds 
between  children  and  parents  in  the  community  of  Israel  as  strongly 
as  the  bond  that  links  mankind  to  God,  and  next  to  the  venera- 
tion and  reverence  that  we  owe  to  God,  He  placed  the  veneration  and 
reverence  that  we  owe  to  our  parents.  And  indeed,  all  Israel's 
hopes  are  based  on  the  pure  and  holy  keeping  of  this  bond.  Since 
education  is  to  form  the  connecting  link  between  the  latest  genera- 
tion and  those  ancestors  who,  at  the  feet  of  flaming  Horeb,  were 
filled  with  divine  enthusiasm,  and  pledged  themselves  to  the  ever- 
lasting covenant  of  the  "  Naasseh  Venishma  "  of  deed  and  thought  ; 
since  education  is  thus  ever  progressively  to  lead  the  descendants 
of  the  Jewish  race  to  that  height  on  which  the  desire  of  the  greatest 
of  the  prophets  is  to  be  fulfilled  "  that  the  whole  of  the  nation  may 
become  prophets  and  God  may  bestow  His  spirit  upon  all  !  "  Since, 
our  cradles,  our  nurseries,  our  homes  are  the  holiest  places  in  which 
D'p3Vl  tfbbw  ""BO,  out  of  the  mouths  of  children  and  babes,  the 
stronghold  of  God's  kingdom  on  earth  is  to  be  built  ;  since  our 
fathers  and  mothers  are  called  to  that  holiest  of  priesthoods  which 
is  to  kindle  in  the  pure  hearts  and  souls  of  our  little  ones  the 
sacred  flame  of  the  knowledge,  the  fear,  love  of  God,  through- 
out their  lives;  God  has  therefore  placed  the  child's  soul  into  the 
hands  of  its  parents,  as  the  seed  is  in  the  hands  of  the  sower 
or  to  use  the  simile  of  the  author  of  the  Psalm  "  like  the  arrow 
in  the  hands  of  the  archer,"  and  He  has  said  to  the  parents  : 
here  you  have  ""T  HPyO  "  the  noblest  work  of  My  hands  "  educate 
it  IKfinn?  "  for  my  glorification."  And  to  the  child  He  has  said  : 
•px  nxi  l'3K  DX  "OS  "  Reverently  obey  your  father  and  your 
mother  "  and  lID^n  WQP  nxi  IXTTl  VJ3X1  1DK  P-'X 

"  Let  everyone  honour  and  fear  his  father  and  mother  ' 

BUT 

"  keep  My  Sabbaths  !  " 
How  full  of  meaning  is  this  little  word  "  But  !  " 

The  deepest  pain  and  the  noblest  comfort,  and  at  the  same 
time  the  only  right  foundation,  the  essence,  the  whole  force  and 
blessedness  of  education  are  contained  in  this  "  but." 

Was  not  the  building  of  the  temple  the  holiest  work  of  man- 
kind ?  Yet  with  regard  to  the  building  of  the  temple  God  said 


49 

n"]K"  "  but  keep  My  Sabbath "  and  raised  the  Sabbath  above 
temple  and  divine  service,  indeed  He  made  it  the  foundation  and 
root  of  temple  and  divine  services. 

And  just  as  God  said  with  regard  to  the  temple,  so  He  says  here 
with  regard  to  education  :  "  Let  every  man  honour  and  fear  his 
father  and  mother,  but  keep  My  Sabbaths  !  " 

With  indissoluble  bonds  God  has  attached  the  infant's  mind  to 
father  and  mother  ;  hence  obedience,  absolute  obedience  is  the 
first,  the  most  important,  the  most  essential  tribute  of  honour 
which  the  Jewish  child  has  to  pay  to  father  and  mother  throughout 
life.  Not  only  as  boy  and  girl,  not  only  as  young  man  and  maiden, 
but  even  as  man  and  woman,  even— should  this  rare  fortune  fall 
to  your  lot — as  an  old  man  or  woman,"  honour  thy  father  and  thy 
mother  "  means  to  the  Jewish  child  in  the  community  of  Israel 
"  OBEY  thy  father  and  thy  mother  !  " 

To  live  as  father  and  mother  desire,  to  rejoice  their  hearts  with 
your  thoughts  and  feelings,  your  sentiments  and  opinions,  your 
sayings  and  doings,  your  work  and  your  recreation,  your  whole  mode 
of  living  and  striving,  this  is  the  meaning  of  honouring  father  and 
mother  ;  and  all  your  caresses  and  gifts,  all  presents,  your  greetings 
and  formal  expressions  of  reverence  are  empty  and  meaningless  so 
long  as  you  cause  grief  to  father  and  mother  by  your  mode  of  living. 
In  this  cause  for  grief  they  see  the  work  of  their  education  frustrated, 
they  see  the  perpetual  reproach  of  having  failed  to  perform,  in  your 
case,  their  great  and  holy  task.  "  Educate  this  human  soul  to  become 
a  valiant  Jew,  a  valiant  Jewess  !  "  said  God  when  He  first  bade  you 
smile  into  your  parent's  enraptured  face,  and  you  have  not  become 
valiant,  have  not  become  a  Jew,  or  Jewess — of  what  avail  to  them 
then  is  the  wreath  with  which  you  celebrate  their  birthday,  if  your 
life  plants  thorns  of  grief  in  your  father's  and  mother's  heart. 

"  Honour  father  and  mother  "  means  "  obey  father  and  mother" 
and  on  the  obedience  of  the  child  to  his  parents  God  has  based  all 
hope  of  Israel's  salvation.  Yet  His  holy  book  adds  :  "  But  keep 
My  Sabbaths  ";  there  lies  the  deepest  pain.  . 

His  holy  book  has  already  pictured  parents,  families,  communi- 
ties, and  generations,  where  parents  themselves  have  broken  with 


50 

the  Sabbath,  have  renounced  obedience  to  THEIR  father's  teaching, 
have  spurned  the  vessel  of  the  Jewish  sanctuary  which  has  come 
down  to  them  from  their  ancestors,  and  who  then  have  to  face  their 
children  with  empty  hands,  and  though  they  may  leave  them 
material  wealth  and  possessions,  honour  and  fame,  they  cannot 
leave  them  the  glory  of  Horeb,  which  alone  gives  a  true  value  to  all 
other  possessions,  a  true  glory  to  all  other  splendours.  They 
know  how  to  educate  their  children  for  agriculture,  for  commerce, 
for  art  and  science,  but  they  have  no  place  in  their  education  for 
Judaism,  which,  through  the  influence  of  the  spirit  of  the  Sabbath 
devotes  the  ripening  powers  of  their  child  to  God's  service  and  places 
his  whole  life  under  God's  care  and  guidance.  Against  this  sad 
phenomenon  the  word  of  God  protests,  which  says  to  the  child  : 
"  Honour  father  and  mother,"  "  reverence  father  and  mother," 
show  thyself  docile,  and  absolutely  submissive  in  all  good  and 
praiseworthylactions,  and  even  ordinary  circumstances.  Where,  how- 
ever, your  parents  are  opposed  to  God's  will,  Tl00n  TirDP  JINI,  there 
you  must  be  prepared  to  withstand  the  hardest  task,  to  fulfil  the  most 
painful  duty.  With  meek,  but  earnest  resolution,  with  bleeding, 
but  unflinching  heart  you  must  refer  your  parents  to  God  D37O 
m33S  D^"Pl  !  Then  as  you  owe  obedience  so  much  more  to  God — 
do  at  least  remain  faithful  to  God,  faithful  to  His  holy  will, 
and  follow  His  injunctions,  even  when  your  parents'  teaching  has 
led  you  astray. 


And  see  what  surpassing  comfort  there  dwells  in  this  hard  diffi- 
cult situation  !  What  a  glorious  triumph  there  springs  just  from 
this  embarassing  position,  because  God's  word  counts  upon  finding 
ready  admittance  into  the  children's  hearts,  even  though  the 
parents'  hearts  have  long  been  closed  to  it.  Not  only  was  an 
Abraham  born  under  Terah's  roof,  Hezekiah  too  was  the  son  of 
Achaz,  just  as  Josiah  was  descended  from  Menasheh  and  Amon. 
The  sons  of  Korah  returned  to  God,  the  grandsons  of  him  whom  the 
earth  swallowed  up  because  of  his  disobedience  swept  their  inspired 
harps  beside  God's  altar,  and  Samuel,  a  descendant  of  Korah  was 
the  third  in  glorious  triumvirate  with  Moses  and  Aaron.  So  deep 
are  the  roots  which  a  training  in  the  fear  of  God  strikes  in  the  hearts 
of  the  parents  that,  quite  unconsciously  the  seed  of  goodness  and 
nobleness,  passing  sometimes  through  the  medium  of  alienated 


51 

children,  is  transmitted  into  the  hearts  of  the  grandchildren,  and 
-discovers  there  the  most  suitable  soil  for  the  cultivation  of  that  very 
seed  which  the  parents'  infatuation  tried  to  deny  to  it.  So  much 
faith  has  God  in  good  education  that  the  triumphant  progress  to- 
wards the  eventual  realisation  of  His  kingdom  on  earth  which 
education  is  to  accomplish  cannot  be  hindered  even  by  period*  of 
neglected  education.  To  such  extent  has  God  made  man's  heart 
susceptible  to  all  that  is  good  and  pure  that  even  the  most  danger- 
ous enemy  of  man's  salvation,  a  corrupt  education  is  unable  utterly 
and  irrevocably  to  ruin  completely  the  human  heart  in  the  later 
generations. 

But  not  only  to  a  system  of  education  that  is  totally  divorced 
from  the  Sabbath  does  God  oppose  His  Sabbath  here  as  the  Saviour 
of  future  generations.  The  Sabbath  is  further  designed  to  counter- 
act the  error,  the  weakness,  the  confusion  to  which  EVERY  educa- 
tion is  subject.  You  yourself,  Jewish  father,  you  yourself,  Jewish 
mother,  if  you  are  earnest  with  regard  to  your  children's  education, 
if  you  honestly  wish  to  train  them  for  God,  then  you  must  train 
them  yourself  to  keep  the  Sabbath  ;  you  must  hand  them  the  sacred 
book  and  show  them  God  as  your  and  their  father,  show  them  that 
the  Sabbath  is  your  and  their  educator,  and  you  must  teach  them 
to  obej.  God  first  and  then  yourself.  And  what  a  completeness, 
what  a  foundation,  what  a  vital  force  and  hallowing  power  does 
your  education  receive,  when  you  bow  down  with  your  child  before 
God,  and  by  your  observance  of  the  Sabbath,  manifest  your  obedi- 
ence to  God  by  your  own  example. 

Do  you,  Jewish  father,  expect  obedience  from  your  child,  if 
you  refuse  it  to  your  Father  in  heaven  ?  How  can  your  child 
remain  faithful  to  you  ilyou  break  faith  with  your  Father  in  heaven  ? 
If  the  will  and  guidance  of  your  Father  in  heaven  means  so  little  to 
you  that  you  hesitate  to  give  up,  for  His  sake,  the  most  trifling 
profit,  the  most  insignificant  comfort,  the  slightest  pleasure,  the 
most  unimportant  custom,  how  can  you  expect  your  child  to  give 
up  his  inclinations,  his  desires,  his  opinions,  his  comfort,  his  habit, 
in  order  to  submit  to  your  will  ? 

By  banishing  the  Sabbath  from  your  family  life,  you  cast  God 
down  from  the  altar  of  your  hearth  and  set  yourself  up,  your  human 
will  and  understanding,  your  intractable  intentions  and  opinions, 
as  the  loadstar  of  your  home.  What  will  you  appeal  to,  if  your  son 


52 

or  your  daughter,  on  their  part  oppose  their  will  to  yours,  if  they 
wish  to  go  their  own  way,  just  as  you  have  gone  and  are  going 
yours  ? 

Oh,  you  fathers  and  mothers,  you  do  not  know  what  a  treasure,, 
what  a  faithful  helpmeet,  what  a  teacher  and  guide,  an  educator  and 
friend  you  lob  yourselves  and  children  of,  when  you  desecrate  the 
Sabbath ! 

Keep  the  Sabbath,  forego  material  profit,  comfort,  inclination, 
show  by  your  actions,  not  by  an  empty  ritual  celebration,  that  you 
are  faithful  children  of  your  heavenly  Father,  and  your  children,  by 
giving  up  their  material  profit,  their  comfort,  their  inclinations, 
will  prove  themselves  by  their  actions,  your  faithful  children. 

Keep  the  Sabbath.  With  every  Sabbath  place  your  whole 
life  and  endeavour  at  the  feet  of  God,  and  you  will  stamp  the  name 
of  God  upon  your  whole  life,  upon  your  whole  upbringing.  In  His 
name  you  will  perform  the  parental  priestly  office  of  education,  in 
His  name  you  will  expect  from  your  children  not  what  is  in  accord- 
ance with  your  will,  but  what  is  in  accordance  with  His  will,  and  in 
His  name  you  will  be  able  to  claim  and  you  will  receive  obedience. 

Keep  the  Sabbath,  SEEK  BY  YOUR  EXAMPLE  TO  MAKE  THE  CELE- 
BRATION OF  THE  SABBATH  A  NECESSITY  OF  LIFE,  of  soul  and  heart  for 
your  children,  and  the  Sabbath  will  complete  what  your  training  has 
failed  to  do.  The  sanctifying,  inspiring,  strengthening  and  en- 
nobling influence  which  its  holiness  has  on  every  Jewish  soul  will 
crown  the  work  of  your  education,  and  the  Sabbath — your  re- 
membrance of  your  celebration  of  the  Sabbath  in  the  home  of  your 
parents— your  own  celebration  of  it  in  your  own  later  and  in- 
dependent life — will  uplift  your  children,  will  wed  them  ever 
anew  to  all  that  is  divire  and  good  to  all  that  is  pure  and 
hcly.  It  \\i)l  compkte  jour  education  and  will  transfigure  you 
and  your  children  in  your  united  glorification  of  God,  long  after 
you  have  left  them,  Jong  after  you  have  been  removed  frcm 
this  earth  and  returned  to  youi  heaverJ)  Father  to  that  beyond 
where  the  whole  lite  is  identified  with  the  one  everlasting  Sabbath, 


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